Casey D

Why are you so bitter? No one knows how a coach will turn out. Levy has a business plan. He wants an intelligent, high-character team. To that end he wants a coach who is of high character, a team first guy, who can teach. Levy thinks with these qualities he can build a successful team. By all accounts, DJ has the qualities Levy wants. I want to see how the plan works. I am tired of the old approach, that most certainly did not work. Moreover, any experienced coach will have failed somewhere--by definition. Haslett, Capers, Sherman--all fired. Were any of them coach of the year? DJ may be a bust, but I'm willing to see what happens because I finally think we have a sound plan in place by a man who knows football and is in the Hall of Fame.

That's tautological--what kind of insight is that?

Now I know you are reaching--the Bears hardly had coffers full of talent when DJ was there. Thanks for the thoughts.

And you are the GM of what team? And are you a Bills' fan? You say you hate the hire and then say you would have hired Jim Caldwell, then say have fun Bills' fans because we are going to hate him? Yeah and bend but don't break schemes must be bad, we did so well with blitzing on every down this year...lol...

Not saying he is(who is?)--but DJ's record has been quoted even more times as sure proof of future failure. And you know he will be a failure how? Because Mike Sherman with Brett Favre beat Jauron with Jim Miller. Tell me you know something more than that to explain your certainty that DJ will be a failure.

All well and good, someone tell me his w/l record with the Bears and the Lions. 579201[/snapback] Tell me Bill Belicick's 5 year record with Cleveland? Rep on him at the time, great coordinator, over matched as a head coach.

The Buffalo Bills have been run like a fantasy team for the fans over the last five years. Lots of flash and good PR, but no character. Need to get the fans excited, trade for an over-the-hill Bledsoe and watch the fans come out like he's Jim Kelly. Need another shot of adreneline, sign an aging Lawyer Milloy in 2003. Fans hate Gregg Williams, fire him. Fans want a hot new QB, draft Losman. Fans sick of Bledsoe and want hot young QB, dump Bledsoe. And the fans lapped it up, selling out every game in 2005, while the team sunk to new depths. Now we have a new sheriff in town named Marv Levy, who has a very different approach. We are going to build this team right, from the bottom up with quality, character players. Not everyone will be from that lack of character institution--the University of Miami--we'll get some quality guys. We will build the lines-- so we can block and tackle. We will get the fundamentals right. Enter Dick Jauron. Certainly no flash there. But by every account a quality man who players will play for. Oh, and he went to Yale, so he's likely smart, and can learn from his mistakes. And he's high character, and a teacher. And he knows the value of a stout D-line. So what do many on this board want--run him out of town. Why, because we did not hire the flashier, instant gratification candidate in Mike Sherman. And truth be told as much as the fans say they hated TD at the end, they in fact miss his "give the fans what they want" approach, even if they don't know anything about building a winning business, much less a football team. All they know is that they want to make a big splash today, so the media will say nice things about us. I am tired of the TD approach. I am tired of the push for instant gratification. I want to see teams, like those when Levy coached, who know how to take a punch and get back up and fight some more. I want a team that beats Miami when the QB finds a way into the end zone on the last play, not one that loses on the last play. Levy knew character and quality before. I think he still does. And while Jauron may not be flashy, he has the brains and character that this team so desperately needs right now.

Gee, they've taken 9 days so far to make a critical decision at a critical juncture in the team's history. Slackards. I agree, they should take less than a week, optimally only 48 hours...CD

Well if ML goes out and hires the OC of Arizona, I'll retract my comment...CD

I agree with your parting observations. In terms of customer relations and service, as a club seat holder they are world class. Constant phone calls, Christmas gifts, all sorts of little stuff. Well run business--just a depressing on-field product...Cd

Mariucci does not want to coach right now. Payton is supposed to being close to being offered the NO job...CD

No, I think he did it because he thinks he is smarter than everyone else, and because by reaching for a coach, the coach would feel indebted to TD and not challenge him, like Cowher did in Pittsburgh. No inside knowledge, just an insight into likely human behavior...CD

Leading candidates for the HC job seem to be Sherman, Haslett and Payton. Gee that sounds so much better than the relative unknowns of Williams and Mularkey back in the day. Marv does not seem to mind finding a real coach, not one that simply knows his place...CD

Of course it makes sense. TD has been running this show for 5 years. Many of these folks in "turmoil" were hired by him--he is the only "father" they know. This chaos could have been avoided by maintaining the status quo. That would be nice for the employees--and there were good things about TD--but the product on the field sucked. If you are going to try and get a better product on the field, you have to break a few eggs, to mix a metaphor. Chaos will pass. Levy is a good man. New stability will emerge at OBD. And maybe this time, in due time, we will also get a decent football team with some heart and character--something that we have not had in oh so long... CD

Closely, but not in close proximity?

It seems pretty clear that Ralph really turned everything over to TD. RW was more or less just a spectator--he wanted to retire. It went terribly wrong, and RW now thinks he can't--or won't--be totally uninvolved. So he wants to talk to people, maybe interview coordinator candidates, not to micromanage but to have an opinion, and to stop something that seems ridiculous from happening, e.g, hiring Kevin Gilbride. Being more involved does not mean heavily involved. It means more than nothing--that's all. I would not worry about this at all, in fact it's a good thing. TD had absolute power, now we have some checks and balances. If all opinions are considered, and then Marv makes decisions, I think this will work far better than the prior dictatorship of TD... just my opinion...Cd

Set aside who Levy is and his age and think about this: Imagine the Bills just went out and hired a 50 year old who had worked intimately with the Bill Belichick of GMs--Bill Polian. He also worked intimately with John Butler and A.J. Smith, and was intimately involved with building SB teams. We would all be fawning over a guy with such a pedigree, just like we drool at the thought of a head coach from the Parcells/Belichick tree, like Nick Saban and Charlie Weis. Coming from the Polian tree is the next best thing to Polian himself. Add that to Marv's commitment to character players. When you look at teams like NE, and I daresay the new Sabres, you see a selfless collection of players that play as a team. They weather injuries and other storms in amazing fashion--why, not because of talent or merely coaching, but character. A lack of character shows in folding when the pressure is on, finding a way to lose. I would submit that while the Bills need more talent--along the lines in particular--what they need even more is character and heart. Levy has those traits in abundance. If he can infuse that throughout the organization, I am confident we will have success. I see hiring Levy not as a blast of nostaglia, but finding the right man for the right job at the right time...CD

Indeed...

As emotionally gratifying as it might be to can MM now, it makes little sense. If everyone with intimate knowledge of the team is canned, i.e., Donahoe and MM, then the whole new management team comes in knowing just about nothing about the team's strengths and weaknesses. People like Levy, and others he will bring with him, need Mularkey to get them up to speed, to identify strengths and weaknesses. The learning curve for the new GM and others will be vastly shorter with MM there, than without him. To be sure, if by the end of next season MM is viewed as fatally flawed, he will go. But at least by then the new team will have had a year to learn, and reach their own judgments. And, it may turn out that the real MM is more the 2004 version than 2005, who knows. You should see how ga-ga the media is here in Washington over Gregg Williams. The team can't be changed on a dime. Keeping MM for now, while not satifying to us frustrated fans, will long term make rehabilitation come faster... CD

How do you know who was handling what..what direction was MM getting from TD. Perhaps none, perhaps TD was ordering MM what to do. How do you know? Quotes from the players have more or less been quite supportive of MM. It could be PR, but most of it seemed genuine, and not required. So we will see.

Given how Sullivan gushed all over the hiring of Donahoe five years ago, we can only hope his views now are as astute as they were then...CD

Yes, at the Bills website...CD

That's an interesting observation. I think there might be genuine concerns that JP may be permanently scarred as a potential QB playing behind that line. Once bad habits set in because of the pressure, they are hard to unlearn. It is tough enough for a young QB to get up to the speed of the NFL game, but it is absurdly hard when you OL can't get to one Mississippi before you are covered in opposing players. Just a thought...CD

I find some of the posts inconsistent on the JP subject. The consensus is that TD is a bad GM. He's done some good things, but way more bad than good and the record seems to support that. JP is TD's brainchild. If TD is a dud in most peoples' opinion, why is his judgment in selecting JP considered so solid--i.e., just let JP play and he will lead us to the SB one day. I personally thought JP was showing improvement during his second tour of duty, so I'd like to see him play. But it is ironic that some of the same people who adamantly are calling for TD's head, are equally incensed that his chosen one--JP--is not getting to play enough... CD

You can tag him for $5-6M. If we could get any kind of a pass rush, he'll bounce back. That's not that much for a top 10 CB, which he still is, IMO...Cd