1billsfan

My mind would immediately go to thinking a blowout would push Marrone closer to the edge of getting fired. He seems like a nice guy, but the Bills have the best defense in the NFL and there is no reason to get blown out, other than your head coach isn't up to the task of instilling confidence and getting his team ready to play the best of the best with something on the line. Marrone needs this game to be competitive in the fourth quarter. So while it would not be fun, there would be the silver lining that the new owner would probably be going after a big name coach in a few weeks.

Putting down a Bills player for no reason is dumb not funny. "Hey we had a great win! Let's trash EJ!" I don't get the humor. Unfortunately, not all Bills fans can stay classy after a win.

This thread is obnoxious. Maybe you think it's cool to be a jerk?

This thread is embarrassing. Can't enjoy a blowout win without making fun of EJ Manuel? Real classy guys.

I can't write him off like that because he's definitely might have some of that "Roger Staubach" flare to his game. I'm just concerned about his never ending drama and the coming "train wreck" the media will be looking for and probably get. Because I don't see NFL players keeping their mouths shut on any NFL team he starts for other than the Pats. I think that there will be a daily soap opera drama awaiting the team that picks him as their starting QB. Think the "Bickering Bills" times a thousand given twitter, TMZ, 24/7 sports networks, 24/7 radio, ect...

That's the thing about QBs, you never know what you have until they play. It's kind of scary to think that the Bills might be a player for him if Manziel is shopped by the Browns. I just don't want the Bills starting QB to be a guy that everyone loves to hate with a passion. If the Bills got him, I could imagine that there would be Bills players in their own locker room that hate him, simply because he would no doubt suck up all the oxygen in the room while the rest of the team would be ignored. Manziel has that kind of media impact. All NFL players have egos, not just Manziel. I'd rather the Bills not trade for him and have them just draft another QB in the 2nd or 3rd round to compete with the vet QB and EJ Manuel. I don't remember any NFL team winning a Super Bowl with a "look at me," "drama" QB.

It's now clear we should have drafted Tom Brady over Erik Flowers.

Nick Foles isnt very smart, he's inaccurate, he's a turnover machine, he's not good in crunch time and he has no mobility. I'm surprised so many fans here want Nick Foles. I think they look at those eye popping stats from 2013 and think that that's who Foles is when it was more a product of NFL teams not being familiar with Kelly's system. Now that NFL teams know the deal and they know Foles is a statue, his numbers have plummeted. His turnovers shot way up. His mistakes and misfires come with regularity. Not sure why people don't see that. As for EJ Manuel, I'd rather keep him over Foles because I know that after seeing Foles' 28 games started, he isn't a true NFL starting QB, while I think that Manuel still has the potential to become one given his high ceiling potential. EJ's body of work is too small for anyone to come to a definitive conclusion on him. Having said that, I think chances are that Manuel will probably not be able to clear that high bar of the Bills needing a top 10 QB either. The Bills need to aim much hire than Foles when they sign or trade for a QB to compete with Manuel.

The only way Marrone returns is with a miraculous 5-1 record. Very little chance of that happening. IMO the Bills have one of the three worst head coaches along with the Bears and Raiders. There is no hiding from this. I think Marrone is a great guy, but he's simply not cut out for a NFL head coaching job. You can't have tunnel vision and be slow to change when things aren't working. Marv Levy would have fired Hackett after that first year even if he was his buddy. Marv was a great guy, but he would never confuse having coach loyalty to loyalty to the job and the team. Marv was willing to do anything other than cheat to be a winner. Marrone doesn't seem to have have that gene. He has his guys, his philosophy and will take that train ride till there are no more tracks. The Bills need a LOT more than that from their head coach to go against Belichick. The new owner could throw a dart at that list of potential candidates and pick himself a much better head coach (well, as long as that dart didn't hit Marrone's name).

Just as there was a tipping point with Jauron, it's past the tipping point for Doug to "fix it" now. This is a league that rewards those who take the fight to the opposing defense and score touchdowns. Not for those who's main objective is to not turn the ball over and looking decent moving up and down the field between the 20 yard lines.

I'm afraid there is nothing innovative about what the Chiefs do on offense. In fact, they are almost a guarantee one and out every time they make them because at some point you need to throw the ball down the field to win in the playoffs. You can't get away with being so one dimensional because the defenses are too good and they will eventually force you to do what you're not comfortable doing. Reid and his run/short passing offenses are great for tallying up wins during the regular season. Just don't expect to hang around long in the playoffs. Considering how the Marrone regime played out as Dick Jauron Part II, a guy with such a conservative approach on offense like this would be one of the last guys I'd hire for this team. I think the Bills need to be both a dynamic running and passing offense because you want to win in the playoffs when you finally get there. Whether we go with an offensive or defensive head coaching hire, the Bills need a dynamic and innovative coach as their new OC.

The thing with Kyle Orton is that he's nothing more than a stop gap journeyman. I suspect even if he did have time in the pocket, he would eventually fail when the game mattered the most. That's been his calling card for his decade long career. This team will have a new coaching staff and along with that staff they hopefully will have a MUCH improved offensive line. I don't think Orton will be back here in 2015. I think the Bills will sign or trade for a QB with more upside (Bradford, Hoyer...ect) than Orton. That will be their guy unless or until EJ Manuel flips the script and overtakes the new QB with a crazy huge leap forward in his development.

Orton is not the answer. He has proven once again for the fifth time that he’s nothing more than a journeyman who should never be counted on to win an NFL game that matters. Sounds harsh, but it’s not meant to be. I think that the Dolphins gave the blueprint to the Jets and Orton is going to get knocked around this Sunday. He may not even last the whole game. As for Manuel, let’s all agree that the head coach, offensive coordinator and front office decisions on the offensive line had left a project QB like Manuel with no real running game and very predictable offensive game plans for defenses to tee off on. If he's our QB next year, I’d like to see Manuel given a steady offensive line and effective running game. Those two things can make even poorest of QBs look good. BTW, even Peyton Manning and Tom Brady get rattled when their lines aren't protecting them.

The season is over. No need to wring your hands over the decision. The Bills can not go into 2015 wondering what EJ will play like when real bullets are flying. They need to see what kind of progress he can make over these final games. The players, including Orton, had their chance to win the meaningful games and they failed miserably. Also, the Bills owe other NFL teams “in the hunt” nothing. What the Bills owe themselves is to let EJ play all final six games because they did use their number 14th overall pick on him. That was not a dream. They actually did that. So not playing Manuel now is playing with fire, because if they trade for a QB in the offseason and send Manuel packing and Manuel gets picked up by the Eagles and he plays great for a real coach like Chip Kelly and the QB we signed sucks…well, let’s just say that the Buffalo Bills franchise would deserve the additional decade of misery that would be coming down hard on them.

I said EJ was no worse than Orton and this is based on watching Orton the last couple of games. When you have two QBs that are at the same level of poor production, you go with the athletic 24 year old QB you spent a 14th overall pick only two years ago over the 32 year old rent-a-journeyman who has lead feet and is playing to collect a paycheck way more than he’s playing for any love of the game. The players on the Bills forfeited any pretensions that they actually want to win games based on how they played when it counted most. This season is over and the rest of these games should be about the decision of who will be the Bills starting QB in the 2015 season. You can’t live in a make believe fairyland were the Bills win 5 of the next 6 games with dead legs Orton starting. I actually think the better chance of them going on a run like that is firing Hackett and letting Manuel run the spread option. That’s beside the point however, the main point is that you have to make important decisions and the biggest one is deciding whether this team needs to trade for Manziel or make a major move on the top free agent QB out there. You can’t make that decision before you know what you have with Manuel. Because if you cut Manuel loose and he flourishes with another team like the Eagles, and Manziel sucks then you will have thrown another “lost decade” on the fire.

Marrone is not going to save his job. It's over. The entire nation witnessed that the Bills have the worst HC and OC in the league on Thursday. There's no unringing that bell. Marrone and Hackett should be fired and Manuel should start the rest of the season so they know at the end of the year if they have to trade for Manziel or sign a free agent that is capable of leading this team to the playoffs. But alas, this is what a smart team would do.

Winning team? There are three games this year in which the Bills actually looked like a winning team…Bears, Dolphins 1st game, Jets. Two of those games were with EJ Manuel as the starter. I think you'd have an honest point were it not for the rest of the players on offense looking like crap. Why is EJ the only one that loses his job? Why do the rest of these shlubs get to start week in and week out playing pathetically? Manuel is currently no worse than Orton. Orton has become the definition of a sitting duck back there and teams are just teeing off on him. So there should be no delusions that this team is better with Orton because it should be clear that that ship has passed. Start Manuel, a guy who can actually run away from defenders and you take advantage of these meaningless games by letting him loose and not restricting him with fear of reprisals when he throws interceptions. If I’m one of the defensive players, I welcome Manuel starting because I don’t want to push the decision back further and go into the 2015 season with a giant white elephant in the room if Manuel wins the starting QB spot. Players, coaches and fans all know that practice and preseason means nothing. Back in 2004, the Giants had the Superbowl winning Kurt Warner as their starter, played him 10 games and then they benched him for Eli Manning for the last 6 or 7 games with their team being right in the thick of the playoff race. Yet Manning was given free reign to fail and he did so time and time again. He was 1-6 and threw 9 interceptions in those games. But he was able to learn something because he was allowed to fail. When you play conservative you are setting up your QB for failure because you and the player learn nothing and it eventually leads to changes because we all know that doesn’t work in this league. I honestly don’t care what the rest of the players think. They are losers in my book. Every game they needed to step up they folded. This team owes them nothing but a paycheck. This franchise needs to find out about EJ Manuel now and the players can take a walk if they don’t like it. I’m sure there were malcontents on the Giants, but that team is smart and knows that you don’t burn a top pick on a QB then proceed to hide from that decision like a scared little bunny rabbit. They had the balls to play Eli Manning and let him throw the ball down the field even though he looked like a disaster, because they knew that it was the only way to truly find out what they had. They didn’t go full Dick Jauron and kick the evaluation can down the road.

When you weigh the decision of protecting EJ Manuel’s development vs putting 6 additional live game experiences under Manuel's belt, the answer should be clear. You put Manuel in and see what he does. You give him free reign to make great plays and make mistakes. You stop playing conservative and you tell EJ to challenge defenses with deep throws down the field. I don’t care if he throws 15 interceptions. The season is over. I'd like to see Manuel get the nerves and gitters out of his system this year with the goal of him possibly coming out on the other end of this “trial by fire” with him lighting defenses up the last couple of games. The Bills will garner almost nothing regarding Manuel’s development in the off season and training camp sessions. The only way to truly evaluate Manuel now and in the future is live action. The new owner should just fire Marrone so that there’s no more delusion and the interim HC is instructed that the most important objective of the remaining 2014 season is to evaluate EJ Manuel and to let him throw it 30 to 35 times a game. No more fear of failure. I don't care if we win a couple more games with Orton. Who cares. There's nothing to be gained from THAT experience. This team desperately needs answers regarding Manuel and now that the Titanic is officially going down, it's time to embrace this opportunity no matter the results.

I don't get any Buffalo Bills fan not wanting to start EJ Manuel. The Bills are not going to the playoffs. What is there to be afraid of? Let EJ "rip it". Let him throw all the throws. Call some crazy plays way back in the playbook . Let him take off with the ball six times a game. Let him call his own plays in the huddle. Tell him it's ok to throw interceptions, just get experience throwing the ball deep. Play fearless. The Bills are out of the playoff hunt. There is nothing to lose. There is no logical reason to play it safe starting Orton.

Another reason to call his intelligence into question is that he's deciding to still move forward with Kyle Orton. The ONLY way Marrone retains his position as head coach of the Buffalo Bills would be to start Manuel and for him to be playing great the rest of the way. By starting Orton he's basically throwing the white flag on his Bills career. Not that going with Manuel is any sort of realistic chance, but it is actually his one and only chance. The Bills need to bring in a real NFL head coach who will tell his players to play fearless. I think if a creative and competent coach (we don't have one) had told Manuel this at the start of the season, there's a chance he'd have solidified the starting QB position weeks ago. Instead we get our OC telling Manuel the WORST thing to do is force the ball downfield. The worst thing to do is to become predictable and conservative and to NOT force the issue and for week after week letting defenses choke your offensive play calling down so much that it resembles a predictable high school offensive game plan. One silver lining in this doom and gloom is that Marrone is officially punching his own ticket out of here and there's a chance we can land a real head coach who will help win games and not be the reason they lose games.

I would too. The guy has a very good record against Belichick in big games.

Mike Francesca on WFAN has said more than a few times this past month that Coughlin wants no business in retiring from coaching (the way he says it, it sounds like he knows this from Coughlin himself). I think he would be the perfect match because I think Schwartz wouldn't feel slighted being passed over for Tom and we could keep the continuity on defense.

One name that should be on there is Tom Coughlin. I think the Giants are going to move on from him after this season. Ernie Accorsi hired Tom when he was the Giants GM and it seems that Accorsi has a connection with the Bills new owner. Coughlin, head coach Schwartz, DC trade for Manziel

What about Kiko for Manziel? Not a really a fan of Manziel's, but the thought of making a game changing deal with the Browns is an interesting one given the Pettine connection. The Browns would probably balk of course, but I wouldn't give more than a stud all pro LB for a second year QB who hasn't proven anything yet. No way do I trade Sammy.

I read that they were hiring a consultant like Wolf, Accorzi or Holmgren. That suggests to me that Marrone is gone because his only shot was to get this team in the playoffs and that's not going to happen (unless a miracle happens and they somehow managed to go 5-2 the rest of the way). While Marrone is a good guy, I think that he dropped the ball with the Hackett hire. The problems on offense just continue to go on and on and on, so there's no real reason to believe he would get it right if given another chance to hire an OC. He's probably better suited for the college game. In the pro game as a head coach you have to be involved on game day. AlI I see him doing is standing there and just staring intently. Also, I would have liked to see the guy show some emotion in a game that was honestly a "must win" for his team's playoff chances. I think the 2015 Bills head coach will be a big name and a Superbowl winning guy like Mike Holmgren or Tom Coughlin (if the Giants let him go).