Dr. Trooth

I'm not "feelin it" with Pettine. First clue for me was his comment that he's keeping an eye on his hometown Philly situation. That might be an indicator that he aint "all in". But, at the end of the day, Marrone will gauge that and make the call.

One question. If there exists a high probability that the Bills are going to select a QB on day one of the NFL draft, why would Alex Smith want to come to Buffalo knowing that there's a high probaility he's riding pine in 2014, if not sooner? The dude is pissed he lost his job to a 2nd yr. Kid. Anyone believe he's likely going to accept that he believes he's not a starter in the NFL? There are a few teams that might want him as their starter now and going forward... ie, Baltimore (if they let Flacco walk), KC (if Reid aint sold on Cassell), and Jets .

1) Don't say "he's not a punt returner, he's a punt catcher". 2) Stay away from chippawaw St. 3) Don't say "it's on like mofo" and leave us hanging.

I get that, but didn't a crap load of 49ers fans think exactly the same of Alex Smith? Enter, a coaching staff and a "KILLER DEFENSE", and "voila", Alex Smith has had a couple of good seasons in a row. Hmmm, now a crap load of Bills fans want Alex Smith as the Bills QB. I have no doubt how Smith would've done if he had been in Fitz shoes the past three seasons. Just as sucky as Fitz... just a better arm. If Marrone believes he can win with Fitz the man so be it. It is his job that will be on the line.

Joe Fauria does have some NFL TE DNA in him. His Uncle is Christian Fauria.

Dude... Tell it to Marrone. I ain't making the decisions, just keeping it real and telling it like it is.

Everybody knows the Bills must bring in a young QB for the future. However... we know Marrone is going to do the due dillegence on evaluating the entire team.... and that will include Fitz. When that evaluation is complete, does Marrone believe that Fitz is serviceable for him short term.... can he put Fitz in a situation where he can be effective? Fitz has a rag arm, we get it. But, he does have some intangibles that are necessary in a starting QB. He is football smart, he does have pocket presence, he does read defenses well, he does get the ball out quickly, he can move/slide in the pocket, he can roll out, and he can run and pick up critical yardage. The huge problem is putting Fitz into situations where the game is put on his shoulders to win. He can't do that. And, he does not have a "money" guy he can go to. Stevie ain't demonstrated that with any consistency nor has Spiller. He tries to go to Stevie but Spiller misses a blitz pickup, or Stevie either drops it or readsd the coverage wrong and runs the wrong route. They both show splashes and neither of them shows much leadership. Fitz has his share of issues to be sure. If the Bills have a defense that can live up to what we all thought they would be, then things are looking a whole lot different. Fans that believe if you put Nassib, Glennon, Boyd in the exact same situation that Fitz has been living in the past three years and believe the outcome is going to be better are nieve or just plain flat out stupid. Yeah, those three young guys I mention may air it out throw down field, but they would easily have put the defense at even a worse disadvantage with their miscues. Bottom line, the offense in general can't improve much if the defense does not turn around rapidly and significantly. You can not game in and game out ask your offense to delivery 35 points if your defense is giving up 34.

Interesting. I thought for sure that Khan had not taken over until after April.

Mularkey has a two year stint as HC of the Bills, then the GM (Donahoe) gets canned. Then Levy gets hired as GM, no one seems to be communicating with Mularkey for several days and then he walks. Now Mularkey gets another gig as HC in Jax, and after one year, his GM gets canned and he's left in limbo again, awaiting the hiring of a GM. Meanwhile, all of his assistants are being told they can look for other jobs, if they choose to. Is Mularkey cursed or is he either too desparate for a HC job or not smart enough to identify internal team issues and find the right fit? I mean, he had to know Donahoe was on thin ice, and he sure as hell had to know new ownership was highly likely when he took the job in Jax. Are we looking at an 8th NFL team needing a new HC? I mean, when a new GM is hired there will he want Mularkey or accept him. Man, the Jax fans were so excited about the new owner Shad Khan.... it's looking more like his last name may have been misspelled. Is it really Shad Con?

Well, I will say this .... When Marrone took over at Syracuse He wooed Greg Paulus from Duke. Paulus lettered 4 years as a point guard for Coach K but did not play football. He had a year of eligibility left (I don't know why). But Paulus was a QB at CBA in Syracuse in high school and a very good one, but chose a scholarship at Duke and eventually lost his starting point guard position. Long story short. Marrone brought him to Syracuse to be the starting QB, which also put some fans in the seats because Paulus was a local product, plus he had national prominance from playing hoop at Duke. The kid had arm strength worse than Fitz, and probably as inaccurate. He also was only aboiut 6'0"', but he was smart, mobile, read defenses pretty well. Cuse only won 4 games that year but there were times that Paulus was exciting. So, Marrone had a noodle armed QB with absolutely no talent surrounding the him because Marrone was left with a horrible program and to boot had a dozen players leave the team because they couldn't handle Marrone's rules. So, Marrone may look at Fitz from a different perspective than we do. For all we know, he may be convinced he is salvageable or at least good enough to live with next season. If he does though, he's not gonna coddle Fitz like Gailey did. At the very least I believe the Bills sign a veteran QB that will give Fitz serious competition as well as drafting the future QB in Rd. 1 or 2 and prrepare him to start in 2014.

I'm beginning to think The Bills aint gonna pay big money to Levitre. Nothing against Andy. He's been a stalwart and a good player. I just don't believe the Bills are going to want to pay more than $4-5m for a guard. If Levitre leaves, there are options on including Brandon Moore for a lot less, moving Glenn to guard, Hairston to LT, re-upping Rinehardt, Snow, Brown, or drafting one in rd 3-4. Marrone's gonna bring in a good ol coach. And, I think Wood's replacement will be groomed this season as well.

Mort just said on NFL32 that Marrone was #1 on both SanDiego's and Cleveland's list.

I consider any of the canned Bills coaches to be tainted. They all have been key contributors to the losing culture. Marrone knows that and may give an interview to one of them, but he aint hiriing any of em.

Tice and Marrone are each about 6'7"

WTF?

Kyle's comments after the season cause me to question whether he wants to be with the Bills any longer. On WGR he said something to the effect he was sick of losing and sick of working so hard in the offseason and then starting over again with new staff. If he wants out, I'm sure he'll be accomodated.

Skins loss is squarely on the shoulders of both Shanahans. They should have yanked RGIII in the 3rd. Giving Cousins a shot at that point when the score was close, rather than when it was desparation time with 5:30 to go, may have resulted in a much different outcome.

That is totally ridiculous. Russ Brandon, his first huge gig... CEO of an NFL team at a relatively young age, and he's going to think so little of that opportunity that he's going to base his head coach selection on the presumption that a QB that he may or may not draft would like that decision? The Bills could draft Nassib regardless of who the coach is. Nassib may or may not be drafted by the Bills. And, there is no guarantee that Nassib will succeed at the pro level whether he is or not. Doug Marrone was hired as HC because Brandon believes he can turn the team's fortune around.... regardless of Nassib.

Well, at least the Bills were one of two teams that made a hire less than one week after canning their coach. That means the Bills will have the best selection of assistants to pick from before other HCs get hired. With Reid in KC, it appears he's going to move most of his Philly cronies to KC. Cleveland has egg all oover their faces. Looks to me like Kelly played them like a Strataverias. Philly, who knows where they're going... Bills walked away from McCoy, deciding not to be played with Philly in the mix. Who knows what's happening in Chargerland. Chicago is still looking for a HC, as is Arizona. Meanwhile, 7 canned NFL coaches, only Reid has resurfaced. We know Gailey ain't gonna get a HC gig, and of the 5 teams left to hire coaches, the odds of Turner, Smith, or Whiz are getting slimmer by the minute. At least the Bills can begin the process of looking to next year and turning the roster over. Yeah.... there are going to be some surprises.

I think if Brandon outlined his vision for the organization and Buddy bought in, I think a consensus was reached. But, the reality of this is that Buddy's days are numbered. We all know that. With this hire though, I think Buddy rides off into the sunset before next season begins.

At the college level, Gailey and Saban had way better talent than Marrone could ever hope to get, especially Saban. Put Saban or Gailey in Marrone's shoes and they probably wouldn't have gotten an NFL HC sniff. Syracuse is never going to be a top 15 program and Marrone knows it because in recruitmat, they can't compete with the big schools...regardless of moving to the ACC (see Boston College). It is extremely tough, and extremely rare, for a team north of the Mason Dixon line to run with the big dawgs of NCAA FB... except with the only exception being Penn State.

I think I might know what Marrone's going to go after, but not who. The OC or DC may not have heavy NFL experience. But I believe he's going to pinpoint the best OC/DC that can handle roster turnover and still be very successful. Living and breathing roster turnover is what college coaches must be really good at. I believe this philosophy falls directly in line with Russ' analytics & metrics layer. If you also look ast specifically Seattle and their roster turnover and youth, they play faster and harder. Call it youthful exhuberance or what ever, but if they can reload like that every few years and play at a high level, they've hit on a pretty good winning formula. After about 20 years in the salary cap era, a few teams are beginning to figure out when that dude with 4-5 years experience becomes a FA and signs his first big contract, many of them get fat and stop producing or just aint as good as what they were thought to be in the first place. If a team turns their roster over 80% every 6-7 years, they don't have to deal with paying under producers (based on what they earn $$$) like Kelsay, K Wiliams, Mario, etc. And, I almost lumped Stevie in with that group. I'm not convinced that what he makes ($$) vs. what he produces is the results of a bad QB, or because Stevieis basically the only option on a bad team. We'll find that out. An $8m dollar WR better be putting up big numbers... crunch time numbers, and especially big time redzone numbers. Stevie does not, and we'll find out soon whether he was worth the investment.

Then the Bills got a bargain. Between Jauron and Gailey, for what they spent and what they received in return, I'd have to say the Bills took it in the shorts bigtime with those two pathetic coaches.

Harbaugh, Carroll, Schiano, now Kelly and Marrone. Ex college coaches (most with pro coaching experience). Seems to me we may be bearing witness to a transition that is taking place in the NFL. Not your Daddy's NFL anymore. Although I don't understand it completely, I believe it goes beyond just the offensive acumen and philosopy. I think it has more to do with these coaches having a better understanding of turning over a roster. NFL coaches can keep a core group together for a long time. College coahes don't have that luxury. Like NFL coaches, college coaches lose players through attrition or injury. But college coaches also lose players to academic ineligibility & transfer, unlike NFL coaches. The most a college coach can have a player on the field and contributing is 4 years and many times 2 or 3 yrs. when talented players jump to the NFL. I believe NFL teams may be looking really hard at roster turnover and management... believing that if they hire the right college coach, he has a unique understanding and working knowledge of roster turnover and may be a good fit, especially with a team that loses perceived good players to free agency frequently, and over pays perceived good players. (sound kind of in step with Russ' move to analytics and assessing a players true value based on on field performace?) I'm sure there is much more to it than this, but to me the management of roster turnover jumps out at me as a key reason.

This might explain why GB has a crap running game. Pill as the Bills QB coach and then OC under Jauron was horrid.