2003Contenders
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I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see the Jets trade down -- and possibly even for FUTURE draft picks, as their cap situation is a real mess and they may not have the money to pay a top 5 draft pick.
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I think Grimm would be an excellent addition, if he doesn't sign on as HC with the Lions.
Grimm has a reputation as one tough SOB, which is exactly what this team needs, as even MM has commented on the team's lack of mental toughness. That also happens to be why the Lions are interested in him and why he will likely wind up as their head coach, especially considering that he and Millen were once teammates.
Even if you are worried about his ability to call plays, the fact that he joins a staff with MM, Wyche, and McNally should mitigate some of those concerns.
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It doesn't seem coincidental that this story came out around the same time that the Jim Mora, JR quote about MM's son was reported. That may explain the Atlanta connection, as Mora probably put in a good word for his boy.
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Now that we have a Roscoe, a (La)Waylon, and a Boss Hogg (Mike Williams) all we need is a Cledus and an Enos to start a Dukes of Hazard reunion.
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I know a lot of folks live in a world where there are only two choices great and horrible, but the rest of us live in a world known as reality where unfortunately life is a bit more complicated that making an easy judgment based on whether you classify a co-ordinator as being totally bad or totally great.
Jerry Gray really has striked me as being a mixed bag in his work for the Bills. I think the results clearly indicate this.
The results sucked in his first two years under GW.
The product improved alot in performance once LeBeau was brought in to install his system rather than the GW system which was simply not a good one for the player talent we had.
The product improved even more in 2004 with LeBeau gone and gray totally in charge under offensive guru HC MM.
The results sucked again last year.
Overall, I would think and hope the Bills could do better than these mixed results. However, there seem to me to be plenty of other reasons in terms of the huge discontinuity of the firings to find opportunities to retain the things that worked well at various points under TD while much of the failed efforts were swept away in the firing.
Particularly because there are some things which are going to be kept like it or not (an HC with 3 year's left on his contract, the players for the most part). The question is not one of whether Gray is totally incompetent or whether none of this was his fault. The question is whether given Gray's pluses and minuses, whether one can galvanize the pluses to make it work and most important WHO is a better alternative at DC. Outside of some former HCs who have simil;ar mixed record of failure and success whom I do not see MM being comfortable with having a former HC like Haslett or Capers standing over his shoulder, i simply have not heard or seen anyone make a good case to hire someone else as DC.
To me, this is the +/- on Gray-
1. He did not prove capable in his first two years of running a scheme inappropropriate to the players here. The GW scheme worked in TN because of players like Kearse at DE and Bishop at SS. I'm sorry, it just was not going to work with Chidi Ahanatou and Raion Hill. To the extent Gray advocated or bought off on this he is to blame for the results.
2. However, though i expected the continued el foldo from him when he was retained for 2003, I actually was impressed with him doing the play-calling for the LeBeau D and mastering it so quickly. This was an indicator that it was probably GW primarily at fault for our inappropriate D in 2001-02 or at least that Gray had learned the lessons of failure if it was his mistake that Jenkins had something left to be our SS.
3. Gray's work in 2004 was really impressive in that it is a reasonable thought that the D improvement in 2003 is mostly linked to LeBeau's zone blitz. However, it seems far more likely that Gray beat out LeBeau for the total DC job for good reason. If the D had still been top 10 but lost a step when LeBeau left the theory would conform to the facts that the improvement was LeBeau's work.
However, in 2004, the gameplanning was all Gray's and the in game adjustments were all Gray's as LeBeau was long gone. The performance in these two areas plus what appeared to be nice work recalibrating the team in the 2 opportunity of the bye week and this corresponding with the winning streak which occured afterwards and got the Bills to the brink of the playoffs last year are indicators of some good Gray skills and work.
4. The results this year are a big minus, but I think leaves open the question of whether the 2006 Gray could repeat the improvement he showed in 2003 and 004 if the overall Bills ship of state is righted.
Maybe or maybe not, but we'll have to see what Marv comes up with and how he dovetails with MM to make intelligent judgments about Gray.
In the interim we may have no choice if he goes to an HC job with the texans or a college in Texas. it does make fiscal sense for the Bills to see this well-paid DC decide to leave rather than have us pay him big bucks because we gave him the boot (the most credible events that line up with this theory is that his position coaches got the boot).
However, overall, Gray has been a mixed bag and I could see how it would work with him under the correct circumstances. Even worse I have seen no one advocate a working alternative or person for 2006 DC under Marve and MM.
Gray didn't beat LeBeau out for the job. In fact, MM REALLY wanted LeBeau. However, when the DC became vacant in Pittsburgh, it was LeBeau that chose Pitt over Buffalo. MM decided to stick with Gray to maintain some sense of stability for the #2 ranked defense.
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This guy has Maurice C written all over him. I would not waste a Day 1 pick on him. However, if he's there in, say, the 5th or 6th -- which he could be considering his stupid stomping activity -- he could be worth the slight risk.
Seriously, though, I just don't see the need to bother. Even if he were gifted enough to ever win the starting job -- I just don't see that he'd ever be a winning NFL QB -- and could be a locker room disaster. His only value, then, would be as a "slash" kind of player.
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Sorry to hear about this, MIP. It is clear that you love your son and only want the best for him.
If I am not prying too much, does he have any positive role models in his life? Sometimes young men this age-- and I know, because I went through a phase when I was his age when I thought I knew better than everyone else around me -- simply need a strong and forceful older male figure willing to give them some tough love.
It's unfortunate that often times a mother -- no matter how forceful she may be -- is simply not "imposing" enough to put the fear of God into a young man that thinks he's a real tough guy. I look back and remember how disrespectful I was at times toward my own mother.
For me... well, my father was a retired drill instructor for the USMC. He was ready, willing, and able to put his boot where it needed to be.
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I still believe that if the defense and running game had been as advertised that JP would not have been near the liability many seem to think that he was in 2005. With Holcomb we KNOW what to expect. He's an ideal backup, who can start a game here or there if there is an injury to the starter.
I say forget about bringing in a high priced veteran QB. Work on fixing the things that REALLY are broken -- the OL (and by extension the TE situation, hoping that Everett will be something special; even so, we needs something better than Campbell) and defense. If JP is not able to thrive with these things improving around him by the end of next season, then we know that we need to look elsewhere to get an upgrade at the QB position.
As far as this year goes, I'd say that we look to the mid rounds of the draft for our #3 QB. If JP flames out, who knows if we could have found a diamond in the rough...
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I think the team could do themselves a favor by bringing in a halfway decent backup -- someone who could actually start in a pinch. It is clear to me that Willis never caught his second wind around the halfway mark. Was that a conditioning problem? Maybe. But it would be wise to have a second quality back to spell him on occassion -- and to maybe ignite some competetive juices. Since we never saw anythig out of Lionel Gates, I presume he is not the answer. There will be an ample number of good RBs (Ahman Green, Chester Taylor, Jamal Lewis) available in free agency. And based on what we saw last year, we shouldn't have to break the bank on one.
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Question... Which of these gusy is the most self-motivated? Remember that Marv always favored taking these kinds of players, even if it meant passing on a more talented specimen.
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Marv has been very consistent for the past two years saying that he liked MM. I think he feels that he can help MM without chopping off his balls.
And I highly doubt that it was Marv's "media personality" that voiced this support, unlike our last GM, who supported Flutie over RJ before he was placed in the position of having to actually make that decision.
I really think taken together, Marv and Wyche can have a very positive influence on MM.
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Maybe Capers wants to bring in some coaches better suited for his 3-4 scheme.
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I thought you were going to say "The Sunshine Boys". I believe George Burns won an Oscar for his role in that movie.
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Despite the whole suspension thing I never got the impression that Moulds and MM were at odds with one another. In fact, MM even accomodated Moulds by making the move to Holcomb.
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It's clear from the PC that Ralph has been reading the papers lately. Maybe the reference to Modrak's being in Buffalo more was meant to appease the media who had made mention of Modrak's residence in Jacksonville as a reason why he may not be willing to stay on with the team in some capacity.
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Hmmm. If Clements was "fired" then that must mean that MM did the honors, as Ralph explained in the PC that the head coach is responsible for hiring and firing his assistants. That probably means that MM is staying.
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Yea, we can only imagine what kind of mess we'd be in now IF Butler had stayed around. We'd have major cap problems IN ADDITION to our current situation. Thankfully Butler hit the road because he wasn't man enough to clean up the mess that he left behind. Also, I can never get over that last horrible draft that he oversaw, which was worse than anything TD did.
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Maybe he and Marv haven't had a chance to touch base on MM's future -- and he wants to iron that our prior to introducing Marv as GM.
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I remember being home for Christmas the week Gregg Williams was fired. I was embarassed by some of the comments that fans were making...a lot of it was way over the line. I can only imagine what Donohoe is hearing. I don't think it is a condemnation of Bills fans specifically, just sports fans in general.
As much as I hate some of the results of TD's decisions over the years, I would never question that he failed for lack of effort of trying to build a great team. I hardly believe he deserves all of the blame for this mess. The more Ralph Wilson has become involved over the last few days, and the more being "leaked", I have to say, that some of those old pre-Kelly era anti-Wilson feelings are starting to come back...
I can't tell you how depressed the current state of this team makes me. It almost feels like the early 80's all over again....
All of what you say is true. I wish there wasn't so much "absolutism" running rampant. By that I mean suggesting that TD is all good or he is all bad. He made some good moves for the Bills -- and he made some that unfortunately turned out to be not-so-good. The bottom line is that things just didn't work out -- and we need to move in a different direction. It doesn't mean that TD should be demonized. Just thank him for doing the best job he can -- and hope that his successor is able to do what he couldn't.
Look at all of the embarassment that the team has endured in just the past few days alone:
1. Losing to the pitiful Jets
2. Having the coach of the defending college champs refer to the staff he worked with for this team back in 84 as "the worst ever".
3. With all of the Gregg Williams worshiping going on by the national press, we keep hearing that he deserves a reprieve, considering it was in Buffalo where he failed as a head coach.
4. And becasue of ESPN's ties to TD, we are going to continue to hear from Mort and his pals how foolish Wilson was for letting TD go.
Can't you see that when TD winds up at ESPN or wherever else it is he's going, being the spin doctor that he is, he will point out what a no-win situation he faced in Buffalo? And hearing us as fans say cruel and foolish things about him as he heads out the door will only fan that flame.
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Can't say that I disagree with anything that Mort said here. It is silly and blind to suggest that TD did not do some good things during his time in Buffalo. However, the bottom line is that the team failed to make the playoffs even once during his tenure, and it is time to move in a different direction.
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For anything you ever want to say about Marv, I will say that he had two great strengths as head coach:
1. Understanding how to deal with a team full of egos
2. Delegating the actual coaching and play calling to his well qualified assistants.
If he serves as nothing more than a mentor to MM, then it would really be worthwhile for MM to pick up on both of these two aspects of being a head coach. MM needs to forget about being recognized as some "top flight" offensive-minded coach, hire a genuine quality OC -- and make sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to do.
Its' really not all that hard.
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Question what kind of relationship did/do Haslett and Marv Levy have? I only ask in wodering whether the rumors of Marv filling a role as at least an advisor to RW are true...
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This news tells me that they have a specific candidate in mind and that Gray is the token minority interview. Otherwise, they would have selected a more serious candidate to satisfy that purpose. It's a shame that this well-meaning attempt by the NFL to ensure that minorities get a fair shake is actually back-firing.
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I also vote for Turner. I know he's a horrible head coach, but he's a proven OC. He loves running the ball and has a long track of RBs who thrived playing for him.
The problem is that I don't know if MM would go for that considering the confrontation he had with Norv after the Raiders "ran up the score" on us.
Breaking news: #34 finalist for Canton
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Sadly, the case you make AGAINST Monk is probably the same case that Peter King and his ilk have made against Andre. That is, instead of taking his entire body of work and his playoff appearances/performances and using that as a measuring stick, one in which Reed would HAVE to rank amongst the top 10-15 receivers to ever play the game, they instead want to look at game-by-game production, which is far less tantalizing.
Reed probably also gets dumped on because of the Super Bowl losses. However, few people realize that, for a time, he had caught more passes in the Super Bowl than any other player in history. It is unfair that he'll be forever remembered for the helmet throwing incident, in SB XXVI instead. Kinda like Jim "Wrong Way" Marshall. Still, Marshall eventually found his way into the Hall, as Andre should one day as well.