hondo in seattle

Haste? OBD did plenty of due diligence BEFORE Gailey was fired (I'm assuming). While they liked Marrone from the get-go, they interviewed him 5 times before hiring him. Who else should they have interviewed? Once they found their man, they hired him before someone else did and we ended up with dregs again. Hands off? So what? This means nothing. Some coaches and teams are more transparent that others. I don't really care. I just want wins and I don't think there's any correlation between transparency and win-loss perception. Bottom line, I agree there's not a lot to get excited about. None of the available candidates made me excited. All of them - Chip Kelly included - have question marks and concerns. I just don't see any reason for skepticism either. I think Russ, Nix, Whaley and the staff did massive amounts of homework on their list of candidates. And, based on that, Russ believes they got the right guy to turn the team around. Dungy or Cowher would have excited me. But given the realities of our options, I'm good with Marrone. I would have been depressed if we had kept Chan & Wanny. Now I'm thinking, "Well, at least there's a chance the sun might rise tomorrow."

Mickey Loomis, Herm Edwards, Drew Brees and Sean Payton have all praised the Bills for hiring Marrone. But all these guys have worked with Marrone and, presumably, like him. Their objectivity should be questioned. But Peter King called Marrone a "good hire" and provides some very good reasons why he thinks so: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130108/doug-marrone-bills/ And Jon Gruden - who I don't think is beholden to Marrone - had this to say: "I would be really excited if I was a Bills fan. This is a guy I have been studying for a long time. I competed against him when he was the offensive coordinator for the Saints. He is a tough, hard-nosed and detailed coach. Really has a good command for the game and is really good teaching the game. What he did at Syracuse speaks for itself. He turned that program around. "I think he is on the cutting edge offensively. He has a vast football background if you just check where he comes from and the kind of people he is able to acquire in terms of his staff. I think he did an excellent job at Syracuse of developing young coaches and surrounding himself with a really good brain trust. I expect him to do the same in Buffalo. I think it is a great hire. "I think he is going to win. I think he is going to get the Bills back in the playoffs soon. Obviously, I think Buffalo is on the right track. Buddy Nix did an excellent job acquiring players. I think they are on the right track, but I think Coach Marrone is the kind of coach that can push you over the top. He has won everywhere he has been. I think he is going to continue to do that. He will find a way to get it done." http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2013/01/drew-brees-jon-gruden-among-those-praising-doug-marrone-hire.html?ref=brp No one knows if turn the Bills around. But if smart football folks like Gruden and King think he can, then I don't think we can criticize OBD a lot for this hire.

Okay, I'll bite. According to Football Outsiders (since we Buffalonians are all into analytics now), Morris hasn't been very successful since he left the 49ers after the 2003 seasons.

JW... You are my favorite author of Bills articles. You are informed, objective and possess good writing skills. But I can't share your recent skepticism. Regards the "no stone left unturned" comment. I'm giving Russ and Buddy the benefit of the doubt on this one. I assume they began their due diligence weeks - if not months - before the season ended. Over time, they whittled down the list till they were left with the names we know they actually interviewed. Considering neither Cowher, nor Dungy, nor Gruden were coming out of retirement to take over the Bills, it was a solid list of names. Personally, I'm happy with the choice. The more "proven" guys weren't compelling options. Lovie has only been to the playoffs 3 times in the past 6 seasons. Whise didn't make it once in the past 3. These guys aren't Lombardi. They aren't even Levy. Marrone could be - it's a roll of the dice. And as an outsider looking in, Marrone seems a safer roll of the dice than Chip Kelly. As for Brandon 'marketing' the coaching staff. Of course, Russ is doing this. He's a marketer. It's what he does. The more successfully he sells the coaching staff, the more tickets he sells, the greater the chances the Bills remain in Buffalo. Even Peter King sounds more optimistic about the Bills than you do. I do recall a few people - Bill Cowher noticeably amongst them - praising the Bills move in hiring Chan to lead the team 3 years ago. But it seems to me that Marrone's hiring is getting far more positive buzz from the greater football community. The people who know Marrone seem to genuinely believe he'll be a good HC. I'm not especially optimistic or pessimistic because I personally don't know enough about Marrone, Pettine, et al to confidently predict the outcome of their hiring. I am happy, though, that Brandon & Nix made some much needed changes. And there are enough reasons to believe the new coaching staff will succeed where the old one failed that I'm excited to see what 2013 might have in store for us.

I agree that Hackett will be getting a lot of help from Marrone. But Marrone says he sees himself as the "CEO" of the Bills, meaning he'll spend significant time with the D and ST. Lots of OC's work 12/14/16 hour days. It's a labor-intensive job. We have a rookie coach doing OC duties and the QB Coach job at the same time. Seemingly, something is being sacrificed. Maybe Marrone sees the QB Coach position as superfluous or perhaps even counter-productive (if the QB Coach isn't 100% in synch with OC).

I'm okay with Hackett - despite his inexperience - being the OC because I'm trusting Marrone to mentor him. However, double-duty is a lot for a new, young coordinator. Someone like Frank Reich would have added some seasoned experienced, provided good advice and taken some of the load off Hackett. For the sake of argument, let's say we start a rookie at QB next year. Can Hackett develop the young kid's skills and NFL know-how while trying to outwit the likes of Bill Belichick in a game of X's and O's?

I read it somewhere that Hackett will do both - don't recall where.

Reich was just hired by the Chargers to be their new QB Coach and work with Philip Rivers. http://profootballta...-staff/related/ I would have been happier if the Bills had hired him. Given Hackett's miniscule NFL experience, I'm not thrilled that he's doubling as OC and QB Coach. Reich's experience could have been a great addition.

From CBC Sports, October 2... --Special teams coordinator Danny Crossman's performance has come under fire after Detroit became the first NFL team since at least 1940 (STATS LLC does not have records predating that year) to allow both a punt return and kick return for a touchdown in consecutive weeks. Running back Stefan Logan, whose role with the Lions centers around special teams, says players believe Crossman is still the right man to coach the unit. "Everybody's going to say what they're going to say about him, but he's our coach," Logan said. "We back him 100 percent." Logan did admit that there could be changes to the kick coverage lineup. "We'll see when we look at the depth chart Tuesday if they move some guys around," he said. "I'm sure coaches are going to make some corrections." Schwartz said after Sunday's game that replacing Crossman was not a consideration.

Good research to support your case. You've made me a feel a little better about this announcement. I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt for now.

Fontes went 66-67 in the regular season. Even factoring in Barry Sanders, I still think that record is counted as a successful one in Detroit.

+1 OJ was a once-in-a-lifetime athlete. He might have been remembered as the greatest RB ever except for the ineptitude of Rauch and Harvey Johnson who misused him his first few years in the league. Oh, and those killings didn't help OJ's rep either. It always bugs me when I see some "Greatest RBs of All Time" list and OJ is something like #8. But I get it. Jim Brown deserves to be #1 he had more great years than OJ thanks in part to bad Bills coaching at the beginning of OJ's career. But I don't know that any player was as dominant as OJ was in his prime. The year OJ had 2,000 (with Lou Saban as coach), only four players had over 1,000 and none were over 1,200 as I recall. Adrian Peterson doesn't compare to OJ. But to get back on topic, the Bills have had several coaches worse than Chan: Rauch, Johnson, Bullough, Ringo, Stephenson. I would consider Greg Williams and Mike Mularkey almost as bad. I would, however, rate DJ better. DJ had arguably less talent than Chan and finished with a higher win percentage. We;ve been cursed with some truly horrible coaches. But Chan doesn't deserve to be on the worst 50 list. On our team, we can offer up Jim Ringo at 3-23 and Harvey Johnson at 2-23-1 amongst others for consideration long before Gailey.

On the one hand, I hate to mess with tradition. On the other hand, the term is mildly offensive. I don't believe we should needlessly continue to offend anyone. The new nickname would eventually seem normal and inspire the same kind of passion that the current one does among team fans.

Obviously, it's easier to improve something that's bad than something that's good. Still, I think it is worth pointing out, as you did, that Marrone had a bigger impact on Syracuse than Kelly did on Oregon. It's hard to say what Marrone would have accomplished had he'd been hired by Oregon instead. I think the important thing for us is that Marrone is more NFL ready - both psychologically apparently and resume-wise.

This is why I'm glad the Bills mostly follow the cash-to-cap philosophy. Of course, another negative to the Jets GM job besides the salary cap problem is the status of Rex Ryan. Having an untouchable head-coach limits the GM's power and probability of success.

I agree. McKelvin has the athletic ability to perform at the NFL level. Let's see if new coaches can help him live up to his potential.

Maybe this will end it. Per the Buffalo News... In a release from the team, Pettine addressed the question of a 3-4 vs. 4-3 defense. “The answer is really yes to both,” Pettine said. “We’ll be a multiple front, multiple coverage defense. The trademark of our defense is we’re going to be smart, tough and relentless. How we configure it is more player-driven. I’ve always believed that you don’t fit your players to your scheme, but you fit your scheme to your players.” “What I see here is a group of explosive athletes and playmakers and we’re going to put them in a position to do just that,” Pettine said. “We’re going to be in the configuration that gives us the best opportunity to win football games.”

I think I read somewhere that the Jets actually ran the 3-4 less than 50% of the time. As others have said - and he has said - he'll use multiple fronts. Pettine has been very vocal in explaining that he'll mix things up and try to fit the scheme to the players and not vice-versa. Considering coaches tend to only get 3 years or less to make a difference, you really don't have time to find players to fit a scheme. Another thing I like about Pettine is that he likes to be aggressive. Wanny's D tended to be passive and predictable. Pettine has no intention of being either. Pettine and Marrone are an interesting coaching combo. They've both been very successful as coordinators. Pettine's D was in the Top 10 four years in a row. Marrone's O was in the Top 3 three years in a row when he was at New Orleans. But both played in the shadows of dominant head coaches. Pettine worked for a defensive head coach and Marrone worked for an offensive head coach so it's hard to know how much credit they deserve. I guess we'll find out.

I remember when Trestman was working as a municipal bonds broker - out of football for 3 years - when the 49ers hired him out of the blue to be their OC. I don't think Trestman had ever been more than a QB Coach at that time.

The past is this: Bad Coach + Bad Players = Losing Record Good Coach + Bad Players = Losing Record Good Coach + Good Players = Winning Records I heard one of the knocks on Marrone as the Orange's HC was that he wasn't particularly good at recruiting. Yet he still managed to win. One can only guess how far he might have taken the team in the future as his success made recruiting easier for him. Did Syracuse's poor talent give Marrone a mediocre win-loss record? Did Drew Brees make Marrone look good in NO? I agree that the past is the best predictor of the future, but when it comes to coaches it's often hard to disentangle all the other variables.

Hackett seems like a kid who ought to be playing football somewhere, not coaching it. Is he too young? Some guys have become Head Coaches at similar ages. Mike Tomlin... 34 Bill Cowher... 34 Al Davis... 32 Jon Gruden... 34 Mike Shanahan... 35 John Madden... 32 I think Cowher became a DC at 32. Gruden became an OC at the same age. Hackett is 33.

Hackett is being mentored by Marrone who was a very successful OC at New Orleans. I do think Marrone/Hackett can outcoach Rex. And Pettine says very clearly that he is NOT a 3-4 guy. Instead he's a guy that build a defense around the talents of the players and will use multiple fronts during the course of a game.

Thanks! This is great insight into Pettine. I like his creativity and flexibility. Seems like he'll be able to find a way to make the current roster effective.

As a 53 year old fan, I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever see the Bills ever win a Super Bowl. Each year, there's a 1 in 32 chance. Given the odds, and the typical longevity of my family, I should experience the joy of witnessing just one Bills Super Bowl victory before I croak. Historically, however, the Bills have performed below probability. Hence my concern. So here's my take on the coaching search. If we hired a retread like Lovie or Whisenhunt, we'd get a good-but-not-great choice. Lovie has only had 3 winning seasons in the last six. Whise hasn't had a winning season in the past three. Both have some strengths as coaches but neither would be the second coming of Marv Levy. Marrone has never been a head coach in the NFL. We all know his accomplishments at New Orleans and Syracuse and we all know the weaknesses in his resume. None of us, though, can really know with absolute certainty how he'll perform with us. I think Russ and Buddy swung for the fences. They think and hope he will be an exceptional head coach. Lovie and Whise probably would have gotten the Bills into the playoffs once every 2 or 3 years. But I want more. I'm glad Bandon et al gambled on a homerun pick.

Hackett is young but let's not forget that Marrone has been a NFL OC and the Saints led the league in yards two of his three years. I don't think the Bills are at a deficit in offensive know-how. Hackett, given his parentage and upbringing, is already plenty bright and I suspect Marrone is confident he can mentor him to future heights. Honestly, I was hoping the Bills would hire Hackett - though as an 'offensive consultant' or some such thing. As it is, I understand the move. Marrone has a monumental task in front of him. A trusted lieutenant who understands what he's about and what he's trying to accomplish is a very useful thing to have. When I listened to the presser yesterday and Marrone said "especially on defense" when talking about the NFL experience of future coordinators, he sent us a huge hint about who might be his OC. The other big hint was that we read the Bills were granted permission to interview two DCs but there was no mention of OC interviewees. This hiring is not a surprise to anyone paying attention.