Nihilarian

After reading through this thread I come away thinking that most fans are afraid of change, any change to the head coach, GM or front office. The way I look at things is even if the team manages to get to 8-8 it's still a losing season unless the team makes the playoffs. Perhaps it is better to bottom out a few years to obtain some of the top talent in the league. But! Sadly, as Cleveland has proven, that only works if you have a great scouting department to find those players and a great GM to select them. And of course, an owner who isn't butting in! What I find interesting is that when Ralph Wilson hired Chuck Knox back in 1978 without knowing it he had hired the future nucleus for his team's future going forward. Knox brought with him his director of player personnel in Norm Pollom who was a pretty darn good talent evaluator and later on he was the one who advised hiring Bill Polian. Polian might be older now but I take exception when a fan calls the man who built three different teams into playoff teams in three years and two of them super bowl contenders pretty quickly ...an old fool. If you look at his body of work as GM / team president he was the GM of the buffalo Bills from 1986 to 1992 and was instrumental in drafting and signing both Jim Kelly as director of player personnel(1983) and Bruce Smith 85). He acquired Kent Hull after the USFL folded and he was the most sought after center in the league. Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, and the list goes on. The Buffalo Bills owner wanted to draft Doug Flutie with that first overall pick instead of Bruce Smith and Polian fought with him over it and just like he would go on to fight with the owner and his money managers over many things in future years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1992/01/19/down-to-earth-polian-built-bills-from-ground-up/bf72fef6-1b4f-4c8b-85b5-c77210d9f53d/ Buffalo Bills GM 1986 Under Hank Bullough who Wilson hired to Marv Levy who Polian hired (2-14) 1987 (7-8) 1988 (12-4) from 2-14 to 12-4 in three years and the difference in player talent went from horrible to great once Polian was hired. Carolina Panthers an expansion team in 1995 and Bill Polian was hired as GM to build the team. (1995 to 1997) Polian hired the head coach and brought in every player 7-9 his first year to 12-4 and a conference championship in his second year as GM. Two Years! Because of his success in building that Carolina team so quickly Polian was hired by the Colts as GM and promoted to team president. The old owner of the team had passed away (Robert Irsay 1997)and his son (Jim Irsay)saw first hand what Polian had done for the Buffalo Bills and then the Panthers so he hired him away from Carolina. In 1997 the Colts went 2-14, and in 1998 hired Polian and the team still went 2-14. In 1999 the Colts went 13-3! Two years! There is a real reason as to why Bill Polian is one of the few the very few NFL executives in the NFL hall of fame as he was one of the greatest GM's the league has ever seen. I for one would love to see the man who's name is on the ring of honor return to Buffalo to direct these new owners in helping build a super bowl contender in Buffalo once again.

Delusional? Please explain to me how things are any different in the hiring of the last head coach than we saw in the last 10 years with the team president involved in making the call. Didn't the Pegula's make the call on hiring Rex Ryan and didn't the team president influence that decision? Just FYI, Buddy Nix didn't hire whomever he wanted as he had to run it by the owner first. His first desire at head coach in 2010 was a very experienced man who had a strong history of taking over broken teams and building them quickly into winners. That man also wanted the Buffalo Bills head coaching job very badly to redeem himself in the eyes of the NFL. His name was Marty Schottenheimer. http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/9487/marty-schottenheimer-wanted-bills-gig Ralph Wilson shot that down because he said he wasn't "comfortable" with him as head coach. Which means he probably felt he couldn't micromanage Marty like he did with Jauron by being on the phone from Detroit with him for hours every day during the season. The result of finding someone who Wilson was comfortable was with at HC was someone who had been fired in his last job as an OC after the team went 2-14 and he was out of the NFL for a year. Then Nix / Wilson hired and promoted him to a head coach position. If I'm not mistaken "Leroi" is an established person who is known to work inside the building at OBD and has several accurate predictions on what the team was going to do going forward. Lastly, what is with the fear of hiring a senior adviser like Bill Polian as someone who would have come into Buffalo to set up the football side hierarchy? (His son Chris Polian already has an NFL job with the Jacksonville Jags as director of player personnel and was hired on May 2nd, 2013.) First off Polian stated he didn't want the czar job long term and would only come in to help stabilize a floundering franchise that he still loves. I do believe that Bill Polian made mention of hiring ex-Charger GM AJ Smith to take over control of the football side of things.(not his son, as that was speculation from others) Smith is currently a senior executive with the Washington Redskins. But that wasn't set in stone as he never even spoke with Smith about the job. AFAIK. What in the world would be the wrong thing to do in allowing the man that built a team that went to four super bowls back to the team he loves to help the team going forward?

If we look at some good coaches in the league recently we would see some men who came in and improved the entire team. Jim Harbaugh first comes to mind in San Fran. A man who took over a 6-10 team loaded with talent and took them to 13-3 in his first season. He also brought Greg Roman in with him from Stanford and resurrected a broken QB in Alex Smith. Smith was thought to be a wasted first round overall pick at QB before this and never had a winning season before Harbaugh got to San Fran. Just by allowing the QB to be a game manager while pounding the rock and playing great defense they allowed Alex Smith to play like he was a worthy top QB. Another good head coach is Bruce Arians who took a 5-11 team and went 10-6 his first year in the toughest division in the league. (NFC West) Arians hired the right coordinators and resurrected someone who was thought to be a broken QB in Carson Palmer. A QB who stunk it up in Oakland for two years prior to going to Arizona. In 2014, Palmer only played in six games because of an injury and Drew Stanton (who?)replaced him by going 5-3 and then once he went out injured Ryan Lindley 0-2 started in the last two games of the season against Seattle and San Fran. So, there are good coaches out there that can make a QB look great rather than the QB making the coach look great.

What I'm disappointed about is the fact that the same stuff that was going on under the first owner of the team is still ongoing with a new owner and that is an owner making the choices for head coach. Then someone with a non-football background advising him. This new owner was somehow persuaded to not hire the football czar that many were talking about which means the people making the football decisions at the top of the flow chart have no real NFL experience in building a winning NFL franchise. Russ Brandon was the pseudo-GM after Merv Levy retired as GM in 2008 and how did the team fare in all that time? Now he is still having an influence over these new owners as he was the one so impressed with Rex Ryan's interview he told the Pegula's to... "Team president Russ Brandon was so impressed that he told owner Terry Pegula not to let Ryan out of the building." http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false For those that still think that Brandon has never been involved in the football side of things. from Leroi, "Leroi Posted 26 October 2015 - 08:12 PM Russ has a big part in scouting and the draft process. He is definetly involved. The guy is a sports genius, we are lucky to have him as the president of Buffalo sports. Remember he was our GM not that long ago. Imo " At first, it was talked about that Bill Polian or someone like him would take control of the football hierarchy and Polian himself stated he didn't want the job long term and would advise who to hire to run the Buffalo Bills football operations side of the team. Now that didn't happen so the head coach, GM both report to an owner who has vast NFL experience of watching the games on TV. Both Dan Snyder and Jeffery Lurie have proven it's not how much money you spend on players but rather the quality of head coach you hire is what wins. Then you need the proper support staff above him with a clear vision of what it takes to build a winning franchise in today's NFL. Constantly changing schemes every few years with the changing of coaching staffs is not the way to go. But! If you clearly hire a bad head coach it's never too soon to make that change. Discipline or lack thereof is something that plagued the 2015 Buffalo Bills who were the second worst team in the NFL penalties. So, this is one of a few primary concerns and no more hiring of "players coaches". The team needs a disciplinarian like a Tom Coughlin or a Bill Cowher! Plus, both those men have experience in building a super bowl caliber team. You also need someone who is secure enough in his own ability to hire the very best and brightest assistants and a this would allow the HC to be just the HC.

Not to mention that those were all wildcard games that were lost with not one division title in all that time. I dunno about the rest of the Bills fans out there but with this new owner I was expecting building a super bowl contending team and not another plodding along mediocre team hoping to eventually get into the playoffs. Great head coaches can be found if the people looking actually know what they're doing.

Not entirely as I recall it. The Bills defense only got that one turnover all game and sacked Bortles only twice all game. With 6:41 to go in the game EJ threw a 58-yard bomb to Marcus Easley for a TD and then the Bills took the lead with that pick six. Let's also not forget that Sammy Watkins didn't play in that Jags game and McCoy had only 68 rushes on 18 attempts. Not like anyone on that Bills offense had a great day. Like I said, If the Bills could have stopped Bortles on that 84-yard TD with 5:21 to go, the Bills win that game. Let's face it as that happened quite a bit last year as the defense rarely got sacks, QB pressure on any QB. I don't blame EJ as much as the rest of the fan base for that game. JMO

I think I recall you posting many times about how the Bills should sign Ritchie Incognito during that 2014 season and that signing for 2015 was extremely important for the success of the offense. To me, that signing of a decent OG was a godsend in helping the teams run game and also protecting a young QB. The stupidity this franchise has embraced the last decade about having a multitude of scrubs being fine for the O-line. The most important position on the field is the QB and if he doesn't succeed at his job the team loses games. Again, to me, building a solid elite offensive line is equally as important as having an elite defensive line. Tyrod Taylor is another godsend should he develop into a top 15 starting QB and with the right side of the offensive line still so suspect I have my doubts that will happen. Finally, new OC Greg Roman is also a godsend considering the unbelievably bad offensive coordinators this team has had to endure the last 10 plus years. As it stands the Bills could remove Ryan and his entire defensive staff while hiring a disciplinarian like Tom Coughlin as HC. Coughlin also knows how to build a top 4-3 defense and who to hire to run it for him. Meanwhile retaining Roman as OC and the Bills would have a super bowl coaching staff in the making. Just my opinion.

What a lot of fans here don't get is that was also true for Taylor last season. When the run game was working well the entire offense worked well and when the Bills QB was forced to throw more than they ran it the Bills lost every game. Another thing that is interesting is that EJ threw 42 times against both the Bengals and the Jags! Against Cincy 42 pass attempts vs 23 rush attempts and against the Jags 42 pass attempts vs 28 rush attempts. That was a quality team on a hot streak that EJ faced against Cincy and Ryan's defense allowed 34 points and no sacks. EJ against Jacksonville threw for 298 yards 2 TD's and 2 INT's and although EJ had a terrible first half, he almost pulled out the game at the end. That is if Ryan's defense hadn't given up an 84-yard drive for a TD with 5:19 remaining. What I hated watching more than EJ's bumbling failure in the first half of that Jags game was that the Bills defense couldn't stop Bortles when it counted! Then Andy Dalton went 23 of 33 for 243 and 3 TD's and no Buffalo Bills defensive player touched Dalton all game. As someone else stated it's just difficult to rank a grade at this stage. EJ was tutored by morons his first two years and nobody really knows if Greg Roman can coach him up at this point. Gotta wait and see.

Let's also not forget the "We're going!" spiel, meaning the playoffs. Which was just another in a very long list of broken promises to fans, to Jets fans for years and now in Buffalo. The few good things Rex Ryan brought into Buffalo that has been absent for years and years is a real, genuine, bonafide NFL offensive coordinator who actually knows what he is doing in Greg Roman. The next was Rex who was the one vouching for OG Richie Incognito when nobody else in the NFL would. Whaley had his chance the previous season in which the Bills fielded the very worst O-line in the league. Cogs, while making the pro bowl also made the two guys next to him so much better. The last time an OG made the pro bowl in Buffalo was Ruben Brown in 2003. Ryan also went after OT/OG La'el Collins who went undrafted in 2015 but alas he signed with Dallas and he became a valued starter for the Boys all last year. Finally, it was Ryan who wanted QB Tyrod Taylor to be brought into Buffalo to compete for the starting job. So, Rex Ryan wasn't a complete waste of space for the Buffalo Bills as he just destroyed the best defense the team has had the last 10 years because he had to run his scheme down everyone's throats. Should he go, the Bills will still have Cogs, Roman and Taylor.

If you're talking about Marrone, once Kyle Orton retired, St Doug wasn't going anywhere in 2016 with EJ or Mr Meh as his starter at QB on offense no matter how great the defense was going to be. Doug Marrone was married to Nathaniel Hackett as his OC and that man was on par with AVP, Turk Schonert as both should have stayed as QB coaches. Which is just what Hackett was doing last year and this upcoming year with the Jags. If Mularkey, who also fielded a top 10 defense in 2004, #8 in pts, #2 in yards. DC Jerry Gray fell on his face the next year and Mularkey was pretty much useless on offense without Bledsoe. Mularkey, like Chan Gailey, if the talent wasn't already in the QB then neither of those men would be able to coach up anyone. I kinda feel Rex Ryan is the exact same way with defensive players. If the talent, skill, character isn't already in the player then don't expect Ryan to coach them up to any degree.

Both Mularkey and Marrone chose to walk away rather than stay as the Buffalo Bills head coach and in my view, and that was a good thing. Marrone wasn't going anywhere near another 9-7 year without Orton and with Hackett as his OC even if Schwartz had stayed as DC. Ralph Wilson wanted to retain Mike Mularkey as HC after he fired Tom Donahoe for a 5-11 season. Yet Mularkey stated the guy who hired me is gone and he didn't feel the same support structure was there for him to stay. Besides, he babied out stating that his kids were getting crap at school in Buffalo from other kids. The point is that Mularkey without Drew Bledsoe at QB the offense went into the toilet as did the defense under Jerry Gray. That 5-11 season his offense was 28th in yards and the defense was 29th.

Would the Bills have gone to a super bowl if they had kept Greg Williams as head coach for up to five years or for Fourteen years? Or Mike Mularkey for 11 years? Or Dick Jauron for 9 years? Or Chan Gailey for 6 years? Or Doug Marrone for 3 years? I'm thinking that without question that none of those men take the Buffalo Bills to the playoffs much less a championship. Two of those men outright quit the team and it was the best thing that could happen at that time. Every single one of those choices for head coach got worse at the end of their reign before being fired with the exception of Marrone and without Kyle Orton, (who retired and was a big reason Marrone quit) he would have fallen too. The real problem with the teams process in finding the right head coach is that the same person who helped make the wrong choices the last eight years is still with the team and still has a major influence over what head coach gets hired. I can only hope at some point that this new owner realizes his mortality as a human and puts an end to the team's love affair with being mediocre. Furthermore, I just don't get why some fans are so afraid of change when it's clear as glass that the guy the team hired isn't ever going to get it done. Every season it starts out with far, far too many mistakes to build a great team. It all starts at the top and until the team hires a top "NFL football man" to run the football side of the organization. Then this team will continue to spins it's wheels year after year.

The Steelers have had three coaches since 1969 because all three have been winners who have gotten their teams to the Super Bowl!!! Chuck Knoll 4x SB wins! With a .566 winning percentage! Knoll took a 1-13 and made them better every year until 11-3 in four years. In Bill Cowher's 15 seasons, 8 div titles, 10 playoff berths, 21 playoff games, 6 AFC Championship games, and two super bowl appearances while winning one. a 618 winning percentage! This with mostly scrubs at QB that entire time as Big Ben got there in 2004 and Cowher retired in 2006! Cowher went to the playoffs his first year with Pitt. Mike Tomlin took over in 2007 and been to the SB 2x won one and lost one with a .639 winning percentage. Tomlin went to the playoffs his first year with Pitt. You simply can't compare the ownership between the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh because the Bills were very, very lucky to find Bill Polian as GM who came in as an offshoot of hiring Chuck Knox back in 1978. Knox brought his director of scouting with him from the Rams and that man suggested hiring Polian. The Bills had their owner Ralph Wilson as team president who was an insurance man who liked to dabble in horse racing and the NFL. He was more "hands on" than he should have been. Now the Bills have Russ Brandon filling that role and he doesn't even own any part of the team. The Steelers, however, have the Rooney family and those people know the NFL inside and out in every aspect. Most are great talent evaluators at every level from the players to coaches they hire to the front office people.The team founder, Art Rooney was an exceptional athlete who applied for an NFL franchise in 1933. The thing is if you find a winning head coach or great GM you keep them which is something the first owner of the Buffalo Bills wouldn't do. Chuck Knox was allowed to leave for Seattle because the owner didn't want to give him a raise. Which is crazy to think about how much that man transformed the team and city. Bill Polian was fired because of some run-in with the owners daughter who worked as a scout for the team. John Butler was fired because he didn't care to re-sign with the Bills right away. If I can't hire you, then I'll fire you! He Fired Wade Phillps because Wade refused to fire his special team coach. The Steelers have had great success the last 47 years because they have had the intelligence and great football acumen to hire the right people in the first place and keep them once they find them! The last 15 years the Buffalo Bills have made all the wrong choices from team president in Tom Donahoe who was fired as GM in Pittsburgh only to be hired by Buffalo and promoted to a job he had never done before. GM Marv Levy was never a GM before being hired as one in Buffalo. Same thing with Buddy Nix who was a retired head scout before being hired out of retirement to be the GM. Then Nix hires a coach who had been fired as an OC on a 2-14 team and was out of the NFL for a year and then promoted him to HC. Current GM Doug Whaley was never a GM before Buffalo and he has a man above him guiding him who is a baseball / marketing man. Now, Buffalo Bills team president Russ Brandon has managed to manipulate these new owners into thinking that they have the football acumen needed to hire the head coaches because of all their expertise from watching the games on TV. Of course, he will interject his wealth of football knowledge because the team has done so as well the last eight years. From Russ To Terry..."don't let Rex Ryan leave the building"! Should the Bills not make the playoffs in 2016 Rex Ryan should be fired, no question. It wasn't just the bad defense for half the year as it was also all the penalties on both sides of the ball. The looked team unprepared to play and mismanaged for some games. Bad special teams. The only part of last season that was enjoyable to watch was the part that the head coach had no involvement in and that was the offense. This team doesn't need a buddy, buddy type players coach like Ryan who won't bench players not giving 100%. These new owners will have no problem hiring anyone as head coach provided they hire that football czar at the top of the flow chart and step away from the involvement of the football side of the operations. I look at the Arizona Cardinals with envious eyes as HC Bruce Arians takes over a 5-11 team in the toughest division in the NFL and takes them to 10-6 in his first year as head coach. 11-5 his second year and then 13-3 last year while taking the division away from Pete Carrolls Seahawks. The Bills need to find their Bruce Arians!

Only two D-line players were bitching and the most vocal one from the start of training camp complaining about how he was being utilized played all year about as hard as I've ever seen him play! http://www.rotoworld.com/recent/nfl/6472/marcell-dareus Marcell Dareus has echoed Mario Williams' complaint about coach Rex Ryan having his defensive linemen drop back into coverage too often. Per Pro Football Focus, Dareus has dropped back only three times this season, but Williams has on 13 different occasions. "It's not been a lot of times where there have been all four of us, full tilt, ears pined back and we're going after it," Dareus said. Despite boasting one of the league's most talented defensive lines, the Bills have only nine sacks through six games. That needs to change, and in a hurry. If they had been asked to rush the passer like under Schwartz or Pettine I highly doubt you would have heard or read anything from the players about what they were being asked to do. It wasn't just the fluke of one season the Bills were great at pass rushing from Schwartz's wide nine in 2014 to Pettine's 3-4 one-gap scheme in 2013. Bills fans can put up color-coded heat flow charts and dissect the stats anyway they want. But the simple fact is the 2015 D-line players were asked to play mostly in a two-gap run-stopping scheme rather than a pass rushing scheme and there were games in which Ryan just didn't call for many blitzes! Hence the reason for being dead last in QB pressures and 31st in QB sacks last year.* Read this article written by an ex-NFL defensive player Stephen White explains it pretty good, http://www.sbnation.com/2015/10/21/9581575/mario-williams-marcell-dareus-rex-ryan-buffalo-bills-defense Some excerpts, "The point is why would you not use your high priced, elite pass rushers (Kyle Willaims don't come cheap either, bro) to do what they do best? Especially when the Bills -- the guys who blitzed Luck 25 times on 55 pass dropbacks in Week 1 -- only blitzed the Bengals 13 times the whole damn game. Yes, that means those guys were dropping sometimes when there wasn't even a blitz coming." Why? Well, it seems like Rex Ryan is suddenly determined to put square pegs into round holes by putting his scheme over talent, at least he was Sunday. We know that the Bills have four dominant defensive linemen who fit best in an attacking 4-3 scheme. "Even having Mario Williams, a human cheat code with his ridiculous combination of size, strength and athletic ability, two-gapping an offensive tackle is a pretty dumb thing to do on a regular basis because it's obvious he doesn't like doing it! I greatly admire Williams' game, but he's just not that guy who wants to be lined up head-up and wrestle with a 300-pounder all game. " Then, if you read this article from the BN by Tyler Dunne he asks the Bills assistant coaches on if they think they players (Mario) were doing what was asked of them and they stated they were happy with the players. http://bills.buffalonews.com/2015/12/31/marios-swan-song-with-bills-is-near/ "Ryan. Defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman. Defensive line coach Karl Dunbar. Coaches have supported Williams all season long – possibly to a fault. Their message has never wavered. Dunbar, all smiles, praised the veteran on Thursday. Asked how one of this generation’s best pass rushers can last 54 snaps without one tackle, one hit, one sack, Dunbar reiterated they’re pleased with Williams’ play. “He’s doing a good job of coming off the edge and the quarterback’s getting rid of the ball,” Dunbar said. “It’s kind of hard because the defense we play is predicated on what they give us and who’s going to be the hot guy. Yeah, you wish you had more tackles, you wish you had more sacks. But I think he’s helping our defense based upon the things he’s doing.” If you don't know the difference between the one-gap and two-gap schemes here is a link, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/football-insider/wp/2014/06/11/the-differences-between-1-gap-and-2-gap-principles-on-the-redskins-defensive-line/

I agree and think it's beyond belief that some fans are still making excuses and are still defending what transpired last season. Only I'd call going from first in the NFL in sacks in 2014 and second in the NFL in sacks in 2013 far, far beyond just terrible! Then to go to 31st in the NFL with basically the same players (and the only guy out was DT Kyle Williams after six games). If you look at the sacks per game the 2015 Bills didn't generate much pass rush pressure all season save for a few select games. Last in the NFL in QB pressures in 2015! Dareus missed that first Colts game and yet the defense was able to generate a better rush on Luck than in most of the rest of the games. Shoot, the Bills got a tremendous amount of pressure on Brady in that second NE game to the tune of around fifty percent of Brady's dropbacks and that was without Mario, Kyle, and Aaron Williams. The Bills got a lot of pressure on Fitz in that last game of the year and intercepted him three times without Stephon Gilmore. Some fans would have you believe that losing Kyle Williams had a major impact with the 2015 pass rush. While he had a good impact in 2014 with 5.5 sacks he was more impressive in Pettine's one-gap 3-4 with 10.5 sacks in 2013. His loss for 10 games wasn't that impactful as teams were still going to double on the manster Marcell every game. This entire thing has more to do with how the players were being utilized in Rex Ryan's scheme over player injuries, any single D-line player not with the team or anyone's attitude. The players themselves were complaining about their role in Ryan's scheme from training camp. Jeez, what in the world is so difficult or complex for the fans to comprehend that the players themselves were publicly vocal about not being allowed to rush the passer? After all, rushing the passer is what got them to the pro bowl in 2014.

In my view, Jim Schwartz had earned another shot as DC in Buffalo because of what he did for the Bills defense! For what he was able to do with a defense that George Edwards, Dave Wannstedt, Mike Pettine and now Rex Ryan weren't able to do with a defense loaded with top talent. Not just good or decent talent but some of the very best talent in the NFL in Mario, Marcell Dareus, Jerry Hughes, Stephon Gilmore and Kyle Williams. It was unbelievable in watching the #1, #2 team in sacks the previous two seasons go to 31st under Ryan. That stat about the lack of sacks wasn't just a number as it meant the Bills got very little pressure on opposing QB's all season long. The Bills were Dead last in defensive hurries in 2015! And that was a line with three pro bowlers who desperately wanted to rush the passer, yet were held back in favor of a run-stopping scheme. Sure, the man could start using a different scheme that would actually enable his players to get pressure on the QB and get sacks. Ryan could actually instill some discipline into his players instead of being their pal. He could actually work hard at a decent game plan every week and for every opponent and not just the AFC EAST teams or teams he wants revenge against. But will he?

Bill Belichick is a defensive genius and always will be and nobody watches as much film as this man does. He may get beaten once in a season by a team but it's rare that he gets beaten twice. But as a great NFL head coach he allows his assistant coaches to do their jobs in which the teams DC sets up the defensive game plan and call the defensive plays on game day. At this point in his career, he is also the teams GM and has absolute control over the teams roster. The Patriots just won the super bowl in 2014 with having the #8 team in points allowed and #13 in yards allowed and were one game away from the SB in 2015. BTW the NE Patriots were the #2 team in sacks last year just behind Denver with 49 sacks. On another note as to the D-linemen dropping into pass coverage, "Even former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly got in on the action, criticizing Ryan's decision to drop his linemen into coverage too often as well. "Dropping Mario Williams into coverage a lot? Didn't we pay him a lot of money to hit the quarterback? And if I'm the opposing quarterback and I see him dropping into coverage, oh, that's a big plus. I'd definitely have a smile on my face," Kelly said, per Yahoo! Sports." http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-defensive-linemen-not-happy-with-how-rex-ryan-is-using-them/

Stating that part of the reason his defense didn't work so well was because he used Schwartz's scheme some of the times last year is nothing but another excuse from the master of excuses. There really is no excuse for a supposed defensive genius to take over a team with one of the best and highest paid pro bowl pass rushing defensive lines in the league and then make them look merely average attempting to run a scheme that doesn't suit what they do best...and that was rush the passer! Then ask his defensive line players to not rush the passer most of the season and thus creating animosity amongst those pro bowl D-line players. Yes, the Bills ran a Schwartz like wide nine scheme at times last year. Yes, the Bills ran multiple looks and fronts going from 3-4 to 4-3. But the one constant that Rex Ryan didn't do last year and something that he was noted for in his past defenses and... that ...was... blitzing... the... QB! In 2015 the Bills ran mostly a run stopping two-gap scheme. Also, the 2015 Buffalo Bills defense was a clusterfluck of problems from the many penalties (the Buffalo Defense gave the NY Giants offense 7 first downs! Yes, that's right 7 first downs!) to the late incoming play calls, late player substitutions. To the wrong play calls at the wrong time (Marcell Dareus was dropped into pass coverage on two of the Chiefs TD passes). When the Bills did decide to call a blitz it was usually ineffective and didn't work well. Last year Rex Ryan only blitzed around 10% or less for most of the games and he ran a scheme that is designed more for stopping the run than it is for getting pressure on the QB. It showed, as the lack of pressure on opposing QB's most of the season was alarming. I can only surmise that either Rex Ryan was either just too darn lazy to work a good defensive game plan against some teams. Patriots 1x, Giants, Chiefs, Eagles, Redskins, Bengals or he just didn't care to walk in Jim Schwartz's- Mike Pettine's shadows. The latter meaning that there was a real reason he didn't even attempt to call many blitzes because he didn't feel the need to compete against those two men for the sack title. Now, this year if he comes out guns blazing by calling blitzes on 50% of the opposing QB dropbacks and runs his 3-4 with mostly a one gap scheme then Ryan will look like the old sack master he was supposed to be in the first place. Bills fans and his players will forget that 2015 debacle and start loving his defense again. The Bills defense will start leading the NFL in sacks again and opposing QB's will start hating to play Buffalo again. We can only hope!

I kinda doubt this simply because this new owner has the money to make any new HC one of the highest paid in the league... and money talks. Once Terry Pegula tires of the three stooges and decides he wants a championship instead of a clown show. He then should make some better choices on who will have control of the football side of his team. I'm hoping anyway.

With each new head coaching hire, I usually wait and see how they do in their first year. My optimism stopped with Dick Jauron and his bonehead moves on who he hired to run his offense. He had sorta the right idea to build the greatest show on snow in Buffalo akin to the Rams greatest show on turf by hiring the OC under Rams HC Mike Martz. But what a lot didn't know was that Steve Fairchild didn't call the offensive plays or set up the game plans for the Rams while he was there as it was all Mike Martz. Then to have 5 to 7 step drop back passing plays with a less than stellar offensive line was all about getting the QB's killed. That Mike Martz deep passing attack kept getting QB's injured. It happened in St Louis and in Detroit then on to San Fran for a bad season and finally in Chicago with Jay Cutler getting his ass handed to him. Martz has been out of the NFL since 2011. So, not only did Jauron not get it right in hiring Fairchild. He then promoted the QB coaches under Fairchild to OC after Failchild left to be a college HC after one season. Just a bad offensive scheme year after year with OC's that had no clue. Chan Gailey screwed it up by proclaiming that Trent Edwards was his starter only to cut him outright after two games. Gailey was so very lucky that Fitzpatrick was even on the team because Chan stated that Fitz, Edwards, and Brian Brohm were all about the same. Fitz came in of relief of Edwards and all he did was run for his life because bonehead Buddy Nix brought in bums for the O-line. Anyone else remember Cornell Green? The 2010 Buffalo Bills started that season 0-8 and finished 4-12. Jauron managed to do better with JP Losman and Trent Edwards at QB. Marrone comes in and had basically three rookie QB's on the roster with no QB coach to help guide them and no senior QB. That year Doug Whaley replaced a decent OG Andy Levitre with Colin Brown who lasted 6 games before being cut from the team. Brown was another one of Buddy's pickups. Marrone's first year at 6-10 because his choice for OC was even worse than Jauron's. I get the impression that Marrone walked away because he had no real input with the roster and Whaley and Brandon are steering the ship. Now Rex Ryan gets fired in NY after a 4-12 season but since he is a defensive genius he gets the benefit of the doubt after being hired by these new owners... and what happens? He destroys an all pro D-line while simultaneously creating strife among those pro bowl players by running a scheme they mostly hate. I couldn't make this crap up if I wanted to. It's like stupidity runs rampant year after year at OBD and now it may not ever end with these new owners calling the shots on who to hire as head coach and the Ryan Bros safe as a tick on a dog with a stiff neck.

You're very welcome Bill. I hope life is treating you well. I was sorta hoping that someone would remember what Bruce Smith said and did against his first head coach in Hank Bullough. Bullough had been known to ride Bruce a bit to try and motivate him and Smith hated him for it. In week 9 of the 1986 season against the Tampa Bay Bucs, it was said that Smith told the other players in the defensive huddle on the field " if anyone makes a tackle ...they answer to me!" Bullough was fired after that game and replaced by Marv Levy. What so many Bills fans forget is before training camp that many Bills players were loving Rex Ryan and gloating about how the 2015 Bills defense could be the best ever. "Asked about the defense’s goal for the season, Marcell Dareus answered, “Best ever. It’s so obtainable. All we have to do is continue to do what we want, and not what we can. If we do what we want, and do everything to head in that direction, why can’t we? Why can’t we?” Dareus has bought into everything that Ryan is selling." http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/29/bills-think-they-can-have-the-greatest-defense-ever/ That is until Dareus saw how he would be utilized in Ryan's scheme in training camp and he went very vocal to the public then. I can only imagine that if he had known what Ryan had planned for him he would have never resigned with the Bills. I can tell you he probably still isn't happy about playing the nose or even a DT in Ryan's scheme. Bills fans say Oh, what about the second half of the season in which the defense looked better! I seem to recall how embarrassed I felt watching that Redskin game with Skins QB Kirk Cousins throwing for 319 yards, four TD passes with no INT's and looking like an elite QB. That's what happens when you can't generate a pass rush and can't get pressure on the QB. Those two losses to the 7-9 Eagles and 9-7 Redskins kept the Bills from a winning season and no shot at the playoffs. The 2015 Buffalo Bills roster had enough talent to get into the playoffs. The Bills FO hired a head coach that had just gone 4-12 with his last team and was fired for it. I get the idea that the Bills FO thought they were hiring another defensive mind like Mike Pettine...only better because this man was Pettine's mentor and a defensive genius.

I agree and It's also about the middle of the line being very strong so that the QB can also step up in the pocket if the need occurs. This is where Miller at RG is the weak link in pass blocking and the entire right side of that line can collapse. So far Whaley has learned that he needs talent on the O-line to have a decent offense and eventually he will learn that those five men need to be a solid, cohesive unit that develops strong continuity. Not just three of five good players. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/football/nfl/bills/2016/05/25/bills-have-gaping-hole-right-tackle/84914864/ Speaking of Aaron Rodgers that poor guy was the very best by far and has taken some serious beatings over the years in terms of sacks and concussions. Holding on to the ball while waiting for the receivers to break open isn't always the smartest move or scheme. Big Ben fits this category too. OTOH, Brady doesn't wait and usually either finds his target or throws it away. This past year was sort of unusual for ole Tom as he took more hits towards the end of the season then I've seen in the past. Kinda surprising that Belichick waited until the 3rd round to draft an OG and they did get another OG in Cooper from the Cards. Will it be enough? I hope not!

It was a waste of around 250 million dollars last season!! Because that entire D-line was forced to play in a scheme that didn't fit their talents. It's kinda why Dareus bitched about it since training camp and then later Mario went public with his dislike of how he was being used in Ryan's scheme. Mario didn't complain as much about the scheme as he disliked dropping into pass coverage so often. Talk about a colossal waste of talent! The Bills could have had four 330lb inept slugs on that D-line instead of such highly skilled pro bowl pass rushers and still done as well. Think about running a version of Dick Lebeau's zone blitz with the players that Buffalo had at linebacker last year. What makes more sense, to rush with the front four or send a D-linemen into pass coverage so a LBer could rush? The 2015 Bills coaches were happy about Mario dropping into pass coverage and his disrupting the pass route so Manny Lawson could get the lone hit on Kellen Moore all game. Talk about a ridiculous waste of player talent. The biggest difference between Mike Pettine in 2013 and Rex Ryan in 2014 that I noticed was that Pettine called a whole lot more blitzes and his blitzes were effective. Then the next biggest area of difference was that Ryan was determined to mostly run a run-stopping two-gap 3-4 scheme and although both men utilized multiple looks, fronts, schemes. Petting ran a lot of a one-gap 3-4 that was very similar to what Wade Phillips ran in Denver last year. The other differences were that Ryan had Jerry Hughes at DE and Pettine had Alan Branch. Pettine also had Kiko Alonso at MLB with Moats and Manny Lawson. Then McKelvin, Gilmore, Williams and Byrd in the secondary. Now think about that 2013 being #2 in sacks with 57 but also actually obtaining more sacks than Schwartz did in 2014 who had 54 sacks. That 2013 Bills defense did give up a bunch of rush yards for the season and were 10th in total defense. They were 28th against the run while being #4 against the pass and the #2 team in INT's. But while being 28th against the run that Bills D was 8th in giving up rushing TD's. Considering the difference in defensive talent on both those teams I'd take that Pettine 2013 defense over last year's Ryan's defense. If nothing else that 2013 defense under Pettine was so darn exciting to watch and created so much havoc for opposing QB's. To me, Pettine did more with less talent and got the most out of the player talent on the roster. Sure, Ryan could change things up for 2016 and start running more of a one-gap 4-3 scheme while calling more blitzes. Dareus could still be used as the nose tackle and still play the O tech while going full bore on one side of the center while the linebacker crashes the other in a one-gap scheme. He might even enjoy that a whole bunch more than playing in Ryan's two-gap in which he is to control the center and a draw double team from an OG. Yes, the latter would be a waste of a 100 million dollar pro bowl pass rusher. If anyone thinks that Mario or Dareus were wrong to complain about last year's scheme. Stop and think about what Bruce Smith would have said or done had he been asked to not rush the passer, but to stay put over the OT, to control both the "B'' and "C" gaps he is responsible for...

I think Marcell Dareus will be the man to play NT for the Bills this year. You gotta look at what happened last season to the league's best sacking team from the year previous. The 2015 Buffalo Bills set a 50+ year franchise low with 21 sacks under Rex Ryan and the only time a Bills team had fewer sacks was in a strike year. So, I'm not wasting my time thinking about how many sacks the 2016 Buffalo Bills might have after witnessing the debacle of the 2015 Bills defense. Then Lawson might not even see the field for Buffalo in 2016 until mid-Oct / mid-Nov according to Schefter. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/15564183/buffalo-bills-get-bad-news-shaq-lawson-sammy-watkins

Ryan ran his 3-4, two-gap run-stopping scheme the majority of the time last season and was the reason for the lack of sacks / QB pressures. His stating that the team will be switching to mostly a 3-4 and looking at the first two players drafted this year also confirm that. Yes, he will use multiple fronts and schemes but unless he starts calling a whole lot more blitzes this season I kinda doubt anyone on the Buffalo Bills with have more then six sacks.