BillsFan4

Oops. You're right. Thanks for pointing that out. That actually makes me feel quite quite a bit better. lol I was thinking they won back to back SB's and this year would be their 3rd appearance in a row (if they make it), but I forgot that Denver won 2 years ago. It really speaks to what an accomplishment what the Bills did was. Even with how dominant the Patriots have been they haven't been able to replicate 4 straight appearances (and the Bills didn't have the cake walk through the AFCE the Pats have faced for a decade). Although I would take all their SB wins over the Bills 4 straight losses... lol

Nope. If they make it this year it would be 3 straight, which is why I'm rooting even harder than normal against them. Im not sure who is going to stop them, though. Someone said of the 4 teams left that it was David vs David vs David vs Goliath and I thought that was pretty accurate. lol

Thanks! Good find. Thanks for sharing. I found that interesting.

I have to think that Tom Coughlin had a lot to do with this. His own change in coaching style from a very hard nosed, disciplinarian who was hard to p,aynfor and rubbed players the wrong way to more of a players coach is well publicized. He almost lost his job over it, until John Mara told him he had to change or he'd be let go. He said players have changed. So you you must change too. Coughlin agreed. http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/tom-coughlin-changed-ways-won-giants/story?id=36089018 https://www.stand-deliver.com/columns/team-building-mentoring-and-coaching/806-tom-coughlin-s-leadership-style-metamorphosis.html

I expect McCoy to have a huge year next season and earn every penny of that cap hit. Brian Daboll has consistently improved the running game wherever he's been, and in many cases he drastically improved it. Yards per attempt has historically shot up under him, as has total rushing yards, rushing TDs (etc). Plus, we know the Bills O line is good with a power run scheme and that's what Daboll primarily runs.

Do you think Todd Haley has been a good offensive coordinator for Pittsburgh? Did you want Rob Chudzinski as OC here (as many Bills fans seem to)? Do you think he's a good OC? Because Haley was running Kansas City's offense from 2009-2011 before Daboll took it over in 2012. and Chudzinski was the OC in Cleveland before Daboll took over. Go look at their numbers with Kansas City/Cleveland... they were worse than Daboll's numbers were. Sometimes it's just the personnel you have. In 2011 with Haley, on offense Kansas City was 31st in points, 27th in total yards, 15th in rushing yards, 30th in rushing TDs, 28th in rushing yards per attempt. By most accounts, Haley left a total mess in KC when he was fired, especially on offense. In 2012 under Daboll - -they improved in total yards from 27th to 24th. -Improved from 15th to 5th in rushing yards -From 30th to 25th in rushing TDs -from 27th to 6th in yards per attempt. The passing stats were very similar between Haley & Daboll's offense but IMO that has to be attributed to QB. When he took over Miami's offense in 2011 - -He improved them from 30th in total points scored to 20th. -From 27th to 18th in passing TDs -from 21st to 18th in passing N y/a -from 21st to 11th in rushing yards -29th to 19th in rushing TDs -30th to 15th in rushing yards per attempt He took over as OC in Cleveland in 2009 for Rob Chudzinski. Chud didn't do any better than Daboll in Cleveland and most would have been thrilled with him as OC. In fact, Chud almost did worse in Cleveland. At one point in 2008 (with Chud as OC) they went 24 consecutive quarters without scoring a single touchdown! Aftr Daboll took over for Chud - -30th to 29th in points scored -26th to 8th in rushing yards -31st to 20th in rushing TDs -26th to 15th in yards per attempt -31st to 28th in red zone efficiency again, the passing stats were almost identical between Chud's offense and Daboll's, and again I'd attribute that to the QB. Anyway... my only point is that you have to look at things in context. You can't just look at his offensive rankings and say "he sucks". You have to look at the entire picture including what type of situation he was left, the offense he took over, their previous rankings and what the improvements were (if any) over the previous year(s) , the personnel he had, etc etc.

Wonder what the story behind this firing is. Was it just the on field performance or was there more to it? (like the development of their young QBs? McCown had a career year under him though, so...)

I know some Bills fans think going from Tyrod to Smith is a lateral move but I disagree. I think Smith is quite a bit better than Tyrod and would absolutely be an upgrade. He's a very smart QB. Know his defensive coverages, can read the (full) field well, find his open receivers, check into the right plays. He's accurate, similar to Tyrod in not turning the ball over. I think hed he'd be a great veteran QB to have around to help develop a rookie, and he's more than good enough to keep that rookie off the field for a couple/few years. Id give up similar compensation to what they gave up for Benjamin - 3rd and 5th/6th. Not sure if that'll be enough though with all the QB desperate teams. Id probably even consider a 2nd if that was the Bills only option for an upgrade at the QB position. Like If it came down to either Tyrod next year or Smith for a 2nd, I'd probably pull the trigger on Smith.

Yes, absolutely I would. In a heart beat. But, it wouldn't matter. The 49ers would just match the offer instead of accepting the two 1st round picks. Garoppolo evelated the play of everyone - took a 1-10 team on a 5 game winning streak to finish 6-10. They have a ridiculous amount of cap space (something like $110 million), too.

I'd be fine with Bradford as a veteran bridge QB. But the thing is, it seems like he is definitrly at a pretty high risk of getting hurt and missing time. Both his knees are terrible from what I've read. They said the MRI's of his knees are scary bad (I'm not sure if this is actually true or not, it's just what I've read). And if you draft a rookie that you truly don't want to play until he is ready, then Bradford may not be a good choice. He missed 8 games in 2013, missed the entire 2014 season. Then played 14 and 15 game in 2015 and 2016. Then only played 2 games in 2017 due to injury. In his 2 (almost) full seasons played recently, he was average at best in 2015 (19 TD's to 14 INT) and pretty damn good in 2016. So it's been a pretty mixed mixed bag with Bradford. He's been up and down in his play and missed significant time to injury. I would take a healthy bradford over Tyrod though, if those were my 2 choices. If it were Cousins vs Bradford, I'd take Cousins. If it were signing Cousins to a huge payday vs signing Bradford to a cheaper, shorter term deal and drafting one of the top 3 (ish) college QBs in the 1st... Then I may lean toward Bradford and a rookie. But I'd be ok with either.

I also think he missed the entire 2014 season to injury (IIRC).

That was this year. I think he meant 2016. Bradford played 15 games for Minnesota and had a pretty damn good season. 71% completion percentage, almost 3800yds, 20 TDs to 5 INT.

I'll be curious to see if anything comes out about this down the line. I find it interesting that someone would (potentially) turn down a shot at being a head coach for a shot at being an OC.

As others have said, it wouldn't have mattered if Bon Jovi wanted the team to stay or not because he would have only owned a minority stake. Plus, even if he truly had planned on keeping the team here, it would have been an axe hanging over all of our heads. We'd have been constantly worried about when the lease ended at the Ralph them taking off to Toronto, or if enough public money wasn't given for a new stadium them taking off to toronto, or if ticket sales or profit margins weren't high enough... well, you get the point. Toronto would have constantly been hanging over our heads.

Castillo was the very first person McDermott hired after he got the Bills job. He was hired almost 2 weeks before Dennison. I'm not sure if Dennison and Castillo are friends but I believe you are thinking of when Mike Waufle was being recruited by the Bills. He's good friends with Castillo and was the one who said in that video about how he was excited Castillo is coming too.

This was an interesting quote - Messed up if true. Too bad Pegula couldn't prove it because the NYJ would owe us a draft pick.

The way I feel is that Minnesota legitimately won that game. They did it with a perfectly legal pass and catch. There was nothing about that TD that shouldn't have counted. It was a legit win. Buffalo got robbed out of a win by a play that should not have counted due to an illegal forward pass.

Technically, I don't think Daboll has ever been fired for poor performance. I'm not sure if he's actually ever been fired at all. What happened in his 3 previous NFL stints is that the head coach he was working for was fired. Eric Mangini brought him with from New England when he got the Jets head coaching job. Then when Mangini was fired in NY and got the HC job in Cleveland he again brought Daboll with to be his OC. After 2 years Mangini was fired in Cleveland and Daboll's contract was up, so he interviewed and got the OC job in Miami. Tony Sparano was fired the following season and Daboll took the OC job in Kansas City. After 1 season Romeo Cremnel was fired in KC and Daboll went back to New England. I dont think this hire has anything to do to do with that old boys network either. McDermott and Daboll never really worked together. McD was a player in Daboll's very first year ever as a coaching intern way back in 1997. Daboll moved on to Michigan the next year, so they never worked on the same coaching staff together. Seeing as it was Daboll's first year on a coaching staff (as a 22yr old kid) I doubt McD is very familiar with him and his coaching style (as I don't think Daboll was doing all that much coaching at that point. He was probably in a typical grunt work coaching intern role breaking down film etc). If this was about hiring someone he knew, I'd have to believe he would have hired Mike McCoy, Rob Chudzinski or Mike Shula - all 3 currently available and all 3 McDermott has more experience working with (and much more recently too) and has a much better idea of their coaching styles and/or how they run things sinc ehe seen them in much more prominent roles than Daboll. With how quickly this hire happened (2 days after Dennison was fired?) I have to think that Daboll was their #1 target, and I'm guessing that's because they felt he was the most qualified for the job. If you listen to the things Beane said the day of his year end presser recently, Daboll seems to check most of the boxes they were looking for. Very successful diverse power run game, designs his offense to fit the team's talent, has experience as a QB coach (at the NFL and college level) & working with young QBs, has shown he can make in game adjustments, known as a very good teacher of the game, great with X's and O's, very detail oriented and organized, known to be very good at connecting with his players, buys in to what the head coach is trying to do and delivers that message to the players, believes every player has to do their jobs well in order to have success... I could go on, but this is already long enough. lol. Let's just say that he really seems to fit the model of the Sean McDermott coaching style.

Not sure if this has been posted yet... 2 ex-NFL QB's give thr low down on new Alabama OC Brian Daboll - http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2017/02/two_ex-nfl_qbs_give_the_lowdow.html

I'm surprised more people aren't excited about this hire. He checks a lot of the boxes people said they wanted. -He uses a diversified power run game (very similar to Roman) that he has had much success with and will obviously bring to the Bills. -He has been a QB coach at the NFL and college level (and was just OC and QB coach of Alabama) and has experience working with young QBs. -He believes in designing an offense to fit his players, not in forcing a rigid system on a team. -He's shown to be able to make in game adjustments -He's not just some old retread set in his ways or just some friend of McDermott's. He is a very young coach (by NFL standards) and seems open to change. I am pretty darn optimistic about this hire.

http://www.masslive.com/patriots/index.ssf/2016/12/bill_belichick_patriots_coachi.html Found it very interesting that, while working with the Patriots, Brian Daboll is actually the one who found Josh McDaniels and hired him as a coaching assistant. Then he and Josh McDaniels found and hired Matt Patricia. Hopefully he can find those types of assistants to bring into Buffalo!

Agreed. Hes the the one I want to leave the most. Belichick is a defensive mastermind. I think the Pats D will be ok without Patricia. But losing McDaniels, an offensive mastermind IMO, could potentially hurt them more. A new OC and possible tweaks to the system/play calling/verbiage etc with a 41yr old Tom Brady. Knowing the Pats they won't miss a beat, but damn would it be nice if they did.

My bad.

I think he was QB coach with the Jets, no? He was OC in Miami, KC and Cleveland.