2003Contenders
-
Posts
2,694 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Gallery
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by 2003Contenders
-
-
That also explains why Dick Jauron's name was listed as a candidate.
-
Note that Scott didn't say that JG purposely threw any games. He just stated that he didn't put forth his best effort. While this is certainly unprofessional, it is at least different from intentionally losing. Based on the rumors we heard that Gray had submitted his resignation, which was refused, prior to the conclusion of the last regular season game, Scott's report actually does carry some credibility.
This is starting to get plain silly.
-
I agree. Remember last week the original report was that talks were not going so well between Ralph and MM -- and that MM was expected to be fired. My only question is, if they reached some kind of compromise, why wasn't the trigger pulled back then rather than waiting a week -- a week during which MM did actually fire several of his assistants?
My guess is that MM was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable about the surrounding environment in Buffalo. He no longer had his biggest defender TD at his side either. I also believe that MM has stewed over the whole Moulds situation since it happened. By that, I don't mean that he didn't get over what Moulds did -- but I don't think he liked being placed in the situation where an 87-year old owner had to give his blessing on whether or not to suspend a player. It made MM look very weak, which is why he lost the PR battle over that incident to Moulds.
I think, in watching what's happened over the last week, MM came to the conclusion that things would get worse from this perspective before they got better. Maybe he went into Ralph's office making demands, rather than issuing a resignation -- and some resulting deal was later struck.
The problem with all of this, to me isn't that MM quit. I think he was a lame-duck coach as it was, with only the fact that TD had signed him to such a long contract -- one that RW didn't want to eat -- keeping him on the sidelines. The problem is that if someone like him is willing to quit, imagine how hard it will be to attract a top candidate!
-
Haslett strikes me as being a coach similar to Jerry Glanville in that he is dynamic and engaging enough to come in and make major changes right away. However, because he's a bit of a kook, he wears out his welcome pretty quickly.
Taken from that perspective, he's probably not a great long-term solution, but he can probably get us to the playoffs within a year or two. For a team that hasn't been to the playoffs in many, many years, that is at least progress. And, lest we forget, Haslett REALLY wants to be here, which is a plus in my book.
Sherman would be my first choice, but it doesn't sound like the Bills are interested in him for whatever reason. Of the remaining candidates that have been bandied about (Rivera, Jauron, Gray, Ted C), I'd go with Haslett hands down.
-
Minority candidate would be Ted C.
-
Alas, the Leinart decision will be the example everyone uses henceforth to convince underclassmen to come out.
If you think about it, Leinart didn't really hurt himself: he didn't get hurt, he played for another national championship, and by all accounts he had a very good season. Sadly, while his stock hasn't dropped, the stock of others has soared. And that is something that no player has any control over. Last year he KNEW he would be the #1 overall pick. This year he could fall to #3. Not only did that cost him millions in a signing bonus, he'll never be able to make up the money he lost in 2005.
Oh, well. At east he got to take a ballroom dancing class.
-
For those who say that Marv would never go for a "I love me some me" player like TO, I present Bruce Smith as Exhibit A.
-
OK... I'm about to go all over the map here in terms of both praise and criticism of MM, which probably reveals my own ambivalence toward him.
Not to defend TD but...
1. Maybe just maybe Ralph placed a financial restriction on how much he was willing to pay his HC, which may have disqualified some candidates (Weis?) right off the bat.
2. With a top drawer defense already, I believe TD was looking for a HC that could come in and clean up the offense as quickly as possible to make us immediate contenders. MM already had a history of coming in and cleaning up a mess left by Gilbride in Pittsburgh. The thought was that he could do the same in Buffalo.
3. How do we know that the result would be any different with one of the other HCs? Weiss has done great in college -- but so had Steve Spurrier. Let's see a show of hands as to how many people were calling for Lovie Smith over MM at this time LAST year? I think Smith is a fine coach, but whose to say that the Bears aren't a bit of a fluke this year -- just like a couple of years back, when they went 13-3. And as for Romeo, well, just how good were the Browns this year?
I'm not saying that MM is the greatest thing in the world. However, I really liked the job he did in 2004 -- but was obviously less than enthusuastic about what he did in 2005. That means to me that the verdict is still out on him. There were a lot of things that went wrong in 2005 -- some were his fault and some were not.
I have NEVER understood, for example, why he got any bit of the blame for what happened with Moulds. In fact, it wasn't even him that made any part of it public. And, as for Sam Adams, well, ol' Sam has worn out his welcome everywhere he's ever played. In some ways, I have to say that MM showed me some thick skin by sticking with these guys in the final weeks.
Of course, I have to agree with many out there who have questioned his play calling, especially in the redzone. Also, he's not shown that he can adapt well during the course of a game.
The last two coaches that were "fired" -- I discount GW because his contract simply wasn't renewed -- were placed in that situation when they refused to follow Ralph's mandate and fire one or more of their assistants. Levy, in fact, resigned -- and Ralph tried to claim that in being "insubordinate", Wade had in essence resigned as well. With all of the coaches that we just saw canned, you really have to wonder whether Ralph made this order, hoping that MM would himself resign.
Then there is the opposite perspective. Perhaps TD was such a control freak that he forced a number of these assistants upon MM -- and maybe for the first time Levy has given MM some freedom to name his own staff. Considering that most of the staff that was let go was on the defense, this could be the case. As for Tom Clements, we knew that he was a goner regardless. The only probelm with this theory is that if this were the case, I would have expected some replacements to have been named by now. Of course, maybe the team is waiting to see if Gray gets a HC job prior to firing him, so that Ralph doesn't have to eat any of that money too. That being the case, maybe MM will act quickly in naming a new DC, who will then have the option of naming their own defensive assitants?
Hmmm...
-
I'm not sure that GW will ever be a good head coach. He deserves every bit of the credit that he is getting in Washington. In fact, it was his defense that has allowed the 'Skins to move ahead to round two of the playoffs. I don't think any of us ever challenged GW's credentials as a defensive coordinator. But one of the things that is missed is the ability -- and the requirmeent -- of a head coach to be a good delegator.
In Washington, GW serves as the "bad cop" to Gibbs' good cop. When the press wants a good quote, they go to GW because he tells them the truth, while Gibbs is so wrapped up in being PC. The same thing applies to not only PR -- but also to player dealings. Recall that it was GW that called out Clinton Portis for cticizing the offense in the preseason.
With all due respect to Gibbs the Hall of Famer, he lets his assitants do his dirty work for him, which does wonders for him as a delegator -- but not for the other coaches that serve as his henchmen. In a way, I've always found Gibbs to be a bit of a weasel for just that reason. For as successful as he's been -- can you name one of his assitants that went on to have a successful head coaching career of their own?
Maybe GW got some good advice about this, which is why he and Dan Snyder reached the agreement they did to make GW the highest paid cooridnator in history -- and higher paid than about half of the head coaches in the league, including our own MM. If GW is waiting around for Gibbs to retire so that he can take over, maybe someone should tell him about Richie Petibon.
-
I didn't take Marv's comment as a singling out of any player in particular. Marv was just stating his philosophy that he wants guys on his team with character -- not just tons of talent. I think he was outlining his approach to free agency and the draft, rather than suggesting that there were current players that he had it in his mind to let go.
In addition to being a great delegator, Marv was always a master motivator. He was able to push different buttons for different players. He was smart enough, for example, to understand that, while Bruce Smith hated practice and avoided training camp like the plague, he always came ready to play on Sunday. He encourgaed Thurman to carry a career-long chip on his shoulder as added motivation. Yet, when he needed to send a message, he was willing to do that too, like cutting Billy Joe Holbert for having not read his playbook.
These are all things that hopefully MM can learn from Marv.
-
No love for Andre huh? So let me get this straight...Warren Moon, the Ultimate fancy passer who never won a damn thing in his life (and I'm not talking Superbowl here, I think he won what...2 playoff games in his entire career?) makes the finalist list but Andre doesnt?
And Art Monk DOES NOT belong in the Hall of Fame...he belongs in the Hall of Very Good. Monk played for a long time and padded his stats, but never really dominated IMO. He was just...there. Sure, you'd have to gameplan for him, but the guy just never struck me as elite. Same with Warren Moon...neither belong in the HOF.
Out of that list, my best guess for the 2006 HOF Class is...
Thurman Thomas
Troy Aikman
John Madden
Reggie White
L.C. Greenwood
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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...
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Maybe Capers wants to bring in some coaches better suited for his 3-4 scheme.
-
I thought you were going to say "The Sunshine Boys". I believe George Burns won an Oscar for his role in that movie.
We need a head coach that has 1 thing!
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Just one thing? How about Rich Kotite then?