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To me, personally, a lot of the names mentioned are almost deserving of the Wall of Fame.

This is an interesting point. But I wonder if it has more to do with talent than scheme.

Anyone know anything about either of these two guys? Man, I would love to see Freddy and CJ have actual lanes to run through! Good point.

Of course we would take a one-legged, middle-aged Manning! Enthusiastically!

Pat Morris is out. According the statistical gurus at Pro Football Focus, the Bills run blocking was ranked dead last in the NFL in 2014. That won't shock any Bills fans who say goodbye to Morris with minimal sorrow. To replace him, the Bills are interviewing... Chris Foerster. (Redskins OL Coach). Foerster's OL this past season was ranked 9th in pass blocking, 21st in run blocking - 12th overall. In 2013, Foerster's OL was ranked 5th overall. Mike Solari. (49ers OL Coach). Solari's OL this past season was ranked 16th in pass blocking and 5th in run blocking - 9th overall. In 2013, Solari's OL was ranked 9th overall. I'm not clear on why either guy is being allowed to interview for a lateral move. And I'm not sure if the Bills are interviewing anyone else for the position. Both guys have ties to Roman. http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/158770/redskins-grant-bills-permission-to-interview-chris-foerster https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/01/08/2014-pff-offensive-line-rankings/3/

Why do we keep revisiting old untruths? While Schwartz liked the 4-3 as his base defense, he was hardly married to it. Rex is not a conventional 3-4 guy. Instead he employs multiple fronts - as do most DCs. Apparently because we'll use 4 down linemen somewhat less often than we did the year before, we'll be overhauling the defense? Most of our players are already familiar with Rex's scheme because they learned the essentials under Pettine. Another considerations is that rex has one of the most successful records in the NFL running defenses. His performance on D over the years has been better than Schwartz's. Since when is upgrading a coach a bad thing?

Great story - thanks for sharing. I love Jerome's optimism. Regarding the comparison to the Seahawks, in another thread I wondered in print if Rex will be the Pete Carroll of the East. Those two may have the most brilliant defensive minds in the NFL. And both are great motivators loved by their players. Both like to complement their good defenses with an offense that can pound the rock. Rex never had much talent in New York. But now he has a defensive squad that compares with Seattle's in play-making ability. It's good to know Jerome likes Whaley because we still need to field more talent. I hope Whaley turns out to be more Bill Polian than John Idzik. Congrats on your retirement.

I get what you're saying... but after what we've been through I'd be happy for now just to make the playoffs if the only thing we won was the coin toss. One step at a time.

I agree with the "unless Roman is that guy" sentiment. Roman, so far, has a mixed legacy as an OC. But even if he's good at coordinating a running game but bad at coordinating a passing game, as his detractors assert, that's still better than what we had. I'm not expecting any positive offensive input from Rex except maybe in the area of motivation as Rex is a good motivator. And I'm betting Whaley proves to be a better GM than John Idzik. This will be the biggest reason why Rex wins in Buffalo versus being .500 coach in New York. I also agree with the OL Coach concern. Yikes, our OL was painful to watch last year - and painful to play behind.

Our D didn't collapse when Schwartz revamped what Pettine had done. If the FO resigns Hughes and Spikes and the team stays healthy (including a returning Kiko), this D will only become better. Most of these guys were here for Pettine and already know Rex's scheme. The transition should be easy.

Not to point fingers at anyone, but there does seem to be a trend. As for drafting the kid... I'd be worried about only 3 games of tape and the fact that he was beat out by two QBs on his own college team. Makes me wonder what flaws he's shown in practice that we didn't see in the game.

Nor did Rex always line up 3 down linemen.

This is s a good post. Until John Fox became available, I didn't really like any of the options out there. Even John Fox would be controversial - he was a .500 coach at Carolina and only started winning with a talented Broncos team where his GM thought he under-delivered.

Ultimately I disagree but it's nice to read a cogent criticism of the Rex Ryan instead of some of the crap that's been posted. So thanks for that! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Whaley questioned Rex about his plans for the offense. I doubt if his answer was as superficial as "I'll hire Greg Roman." Rex knows offense is the Achilles Heel to his reputation and I'm sure he's reflected upon it. But let's not understate John Idzik hamstringing Rex. It would have been hard for Vince Lombardi to win many games with the players the Jets FO acquired for Rex. I still think there's a certain brilliance to this. Whaley hired the best defensive mind out there to make our D even better. Then he hired the best running game coordinator available because he knows we don't have an immediate solution at QB so we'll need to run the ball. So if our coaches (Rex & Roman) simply replicate what they've done in the past, we'll have a top notch defense and a good running attack. That's more than we had this year and should be sufficient to get us into the playoffs. And while Roman has never coordinated a particular potent passing attack, he did turn around Alex Smith's career. As for the impotency of the 49er passing attack this year, you really should read the Sacramento Bee article I linked earlier that puts much of the blame on Kaep and the receivers. Our offense gets better because Roman is better than Hackett. Our D gets better because Ryan is a little better than Schwartz. And our player-talent gets better because FAs would rather come work for Rex Ryan and Douche Marrone. Rex might not have been the best candidate out there but I just can't see this as anything but a step forward nonetheless.

I think Rex's resume on defense is better than Schwartz's resume. Given their different philosophies, it was hard to imagine them working together. It sucks for the players but what Rex installs will be very similar to what Pettine installed not very long ago.

If someone already made this point, my apologies, but Kaep sucks. He's not accurate. If Roman couldn't develop a good passing attack with Kaep in San Francisco, why would you think he could do it in Buffalo?

Or he might have been working with the worst GM in the NFL since Matt Millen.

Holy Crap! Does Rex really have the time to research a draft class so thoroughly that he knows who to pick in the 7th round. Yeah, I get it's a throwaway pick anyway. But I still think the Bills should let Rex do what he's good at (coaching) and let Whaley do what he's good at (player personnel). But it will be interesting to see how the Ryan-Whaley dynamic works out. Every HC worries about having a good GM who gets good talent for him. I think Rex probably worried more than most after the hell of working with John Idzik. It seems that Rex taking the job with the Bills is a vote of confidence for DW.

Derek, I really disagree with you. Here's why... We didn't just hire Rex. We hired the Rex/Roman combo and - although it took me a while to warm up to this - I think it will be a great coaching duo for the Bills. In San Francisco, Alex Smith was 1st round bust and perpetually mediocre QB until he blossomed under Roman's tutelage. Then Harbaugh decided to start Kaep over Smith and, as we've seen this year, Kaep sucks. Kaep isn't a good QB and his inaccuracy held Roman's offense back. When you say Kaep is better than EJ, did you actually watch Kaep play this year? According to the Sacramento Bee*, the 49ers left 100 points on the table this season either because receivers dropped passes or Kaep threw inaccurate balls. That's not the Roman's fault. That's lack of player talent. Roman is clearly better than Hackett - at least Roman had his rushing offense in the top ten every year. As far as Rex is concerned, over the past 6 years, the Jets were the best D in the NFL in passing yards, completion percentage, first downs and yards per play. Rex accomplished those stellar defensive statistics despite the crap talent Idzik acquired for him. Rex just might make our good Bills D into a great D. Let's imagine this: Ryan has our D in the top five (again) and Roman gets our running attack in the top 10. That's what these gentlemen tend to accomplish and it may be enough to get us into the playoffs. We almost made the playoffs this year despite an offense that was putrid at everything. Whaley is a smart man. He knows he doesn't have an immediate solution at QB. So he brings in Rex to make the D even better and because he knows Rex prefers to run the ball - something we can realistically hope to do well next year. And with Rex's assistance, Whaley brings in Roman whose expertise is building running attacks. Sure, they'd love to find a franchise QB. In the meantime, they're building a team that will get into the playoffs in 2015 without a marquis QB. At this point, all we truly need are two OGs. I'm guessing Whaley has a plan for the OL too. It's going to be a fun offseason and next January we're going to be watching the Bills on TV. * http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/article5877429.html

Is Rex the Pete Carroll of the East? Both are great motivators who preach team unity and maximum effort. Both are 'player-coaches' loved by their players. And both are brilliant defensive tacticians. In fact, Rex and Pete may possess the two best defensive minds in the NFL today. But Pete has more player-talent in Seattle than Rex had in NY. Might we remedy that in Buffalo?

I don't care what Cimini says. If he doesn't see Rex's strengths as a coach, I'm confused. Rex may be the best defensive coach around today. He had the bad fortune of working for guy who may have been the worst GM since Matt Millen. But Rex's stats on the defensive side of the ball shine nonetheless. Can Rex and Whaley fix the offense? That's the million dollar question. We'll all speculate and argue but only time will tell.

That's a very valid question. Stories from the Bay Area seem to suggest Roman was more independent under Harbaugh than Marrone was under Payton. But it's impossible to know exactly how much of their offense was Harbaugh and how much was Roman. Pettine did a credible job when he got out from under Rex's large shadow. Let's hope Roman does great things away from Harbaugh's shadow. The thing about Roman is that he's been mentioned as a HC possibility for a couple years now. People in the NFL community seem to think highly of him. So I'm guessing he was not merely a figurehead in SF. But I don't know.

Ryan's "blind spot" on offense has a lot to do with a lack of talent. Idzik was an awful GM. But at least Rex hired a capable NFL OC for the Bills in Greg Roman (I'm warming up to this choice). Prior to joining the Bills, neither Hackett nor Doug Marrone himself had ever run a NFL offense. Despite the "OC" title in New Orleans, Marrone was a glorified OL coach there. To this date, neither Hackett nor Marrone has ever run a good offense at the NFL level. They've been proven inept both running and passing. Roman at least has a track record of building good running attacks. His history with the passing game is less distinguished but Alex Smith finally bloomed as a QB under Roman's tutelage. Rex is a great defensive coach. He's also a great motivator. Roman is a capable offensive coach. There may be better coaching staffs in the NFL but ours isn't bad. It may even be good. It's now Whaley's job to get Rex and Roman some offensive linemen and a QB.

I was one of the posters negatively commenting on Roman's ability to develop a passing attack. And I maintain some of my reservations. But these stats - especially the improvement in Alex Smith when he started working with Roman - make me hope I'm wrong. Thanks.