Got_Wood

See the Cleveland Browns. This team appears to have put together the pieces to theoretically create a high powered NFL offense. 1st round picks in Brady Quinn, Joe Thomas, and Alex Mack, plus a big investment in Eric Steinbach. They had Braylon Edwards and couldn't do much with him. Jamal Lewis is a serviceable RB, along with young guys Davis and Harrison. So what's the problem? Why are they terrible? The Cleveland Browns have bad management, which has resulted in bad coaches. Randy Lerner was handed the Cleveland franchise when his father passed, and has taken his ownership for granted ever since. He has always had more interest in English Football. Lerner may end up saving the Browns if he shifts his focus to his NFL team instead. It seems that he has finally taken their losing personally and is looking to find a top of the line GM, and start that franchise over. That remains to be seen. But the Browns failure is no mistake. Their awful state is the result of neglect and mismanagement. It trickles down from the top folks. A 1st round pick QB would be great for this team, and so would some additions to the O-line. But only if these new players are brought in by a carefully assembled new front office, that gets to assemble their own coaching staff and strategy. I can only hope that we're lucky enough to have Ralph give the fans one last gift to the fans, and bring in a top quality GM.

By the o-line "coming together", I mean that we can get a couple new guys in the offseason to fill the gaps. I think LeVitre can be a very good starter, but he has to get stronger and adjust to the speed of the pro game. And I also think that between Bell and Meredith we might have a decent right tackle. And Wood should make a great center. But we still need a quality guard and left tackle. That aside, we'll never be successful on offense if we don't have a quality scheme, and a coach that can make adjustments to that scheme to improve every week. Right now, we have a weak playbook and we can't even execute it.

The o-line will come together. But we don't have a real scheme. We don't have a single guy that understands how to draw up plays. You can't run a team that way. It doesn't matter what kind of talent you have if you don't have the brains in your coaching staff to put a playbook together and make your guys execute it. Its a damn embarrassment to watch these guys take the field every Sunday on offense.

Take a look at our NFL "offensive" coaching experience: Head Coach: Dick Jauron - 9 seasons as defensive backs coach - 6 seasons as defensive coordinator - Rest of career as Head Coach Offensive Coordinator: Alex Van Pelt - 1 season as Quarterbacks Coach (Only received position because Turk Schonert was promoted from QB Coach) Quarterbacks Coach: None - vacant sideline (there was no one else to promote) I mean, is there any question why our offense sucks? We've got a good running backs coach in Eric Studesville and a good offensive line coach in Sean Kugler, but we sure as hell can't run a damn play. We don't have a single guy that has called offensive plays in the NFL. Not one. Come on Ralph!!! Figure this out. Either get yourself a real GM that can run this team the way it should be, or SELL THE TEAM.

Couldn't agree with you more. It doesn't matter that this group of morons had interest in Vick this season. We need a capable GM to come in here and make the determination himself about what players he needs to bring in.

Yeah, the offense isn't just bad. It's disorganized, they telegraph plays, it's unimaginative, and just flat out pathetic.

That's not a very good place to be if you're an NFL franchise. That's where the Lions and Rams are. I never thought we would approach a point this low.

Thanks for the kind words.

Not surprising. Jauron's not exactly known for his communication skills.

Haha, yeah so this is what I mean... You're right that as a coach you need to get the most of what you have. And we're not finding ways to do that, especially offensively. My other point is that when you have time to put a team together (which in Dick's case is 4 years), you need to build your team around a philosophy. So in 2006 when Jauron came in, he should have said THIS is my team and THIS is our strength. And then take that team and develop it around a certain style of play. We didn't do that (outside of Dick's need to bring in lots of DB's and small linebackers). We just filled different positions with what we perceived to be better players. Here we are 4 years later and the offense still has no identity. And most times looks flat out confused on the field.

Wow, can't believe he said that. Awesome. Good for TO.

Great read, thanks. I think Leach would make a GREAT offensive coordinator. The thing is, will he ever leave college as a head coach to become someone with a lesser role in the NFL? I don't know. But that seems like the best fit for him.

This is true, unless this position evolves in the NFL as well. If a guy like Tebow or Locker (who are both great runners) come into the league, I think you can use the option. There have been guys in the past that could run like Steve Young, Randall Cunningham, John Elway, Michael Vick, and Steve McNair (in his earlier days). I think it's a possibility. QB's don't HAVE TO be slow and fragile. This is just the type of guy teams are recruiting in this NFL era... the pocket passer QB. I hate the fact that money has changed the game so much. You can barely touch the QB anymore without drawing a penalty or getting a big fine from the league. You also don't see guys like Hester or McGee returning kickoffs as much because they are "paid too much" to do that. That's weak. Just play football.

I agree, and conversely teams need to build their personnel based on schemes they would like to run. Using New England as an example once again, they have an intelligent QB in Brady, some excellent wide outs in Moss and Welker, and Faulk and Watson have good pass catching ability as well. These guys aren't known for their running game. They use lots of short passes to supplant the running game. It is absolutely a spread offense, and Belichick took the time to sit down with Leach and Meyer and learn the intricacies of this offense to bring it to the NFL. This game is evolving every year, and the Bills are slow to catch on. We tried the west coast offense, but that didn't work for us. And it needs to be built around a high quality QB. The Bills need to figure out their identity on offense. Are we a power running team, or are we a passing oriented team? Well, we have Lynch and Jackson at the RB position and we have Evans and Owens at the WR position. And we don't have a dominant QB. It looks to me like we're confused. We have big time threats in the backfield, but no line to block for them and no creative plays to get these guys in the endzone. We have big time WR's, but no big armed QB to get them the ball. We either need to find ourselves a big time QB and develop a passing game with our big threats or we need to trade away a guy like Owens or Evans and develop the running game. I think it all starts with a coach that has a plan and philosophy in mind, and develops his team and his plays around it. If we get that coach in here, we can start to evolve.

I always like it when we have Marshawn in the backfield and Freddy in the slot (or the other way around). Both of these guys can be on the field at all times. We need to find a way to do this.

Once again... this is THE MOST HIGHLY TOUTED QB CLASS in terms of sheer number of talented players in a long, long time. McCoy, Tebow, Bradford, Locker, Lefevour, Mallett, Clausen, etc etc. There are a number of guys that COULD be good. You face that possibility every year of a guy being a total bust. But with this many good quarterbacks coming into the league, the Bills HAVE TO take a shot. The franchise needs a new face in a big way.

Pretty straight forward isn't it?

Sometimes I think that it's simpler than all of the stats indicate. Winning in football is about scoring more than your opponent. We can hold off other teams from scoring for a while and force some turnovers. But if our offense doesn't move the football, eat up some clock, and get points on the board... we'll lose. I tend to think this team can get better. Each game, our offensive line should get better with more experience. We've got good young weapons in Nelson, Hardy, and Johnson that we haven't seen take the field yet. We should find ways to get Jackson and Lynch involved at the same time more often. Not trying to be a downer. Just simply stating where we're at, and hoping we can get better.

EXACTLY.

The rankings are based on scoring alone. See here. Yards don't mean anything if you don't score. And the rankings are based on the numbers after this weekend, not when we played them. We can see the real numbers at the end of the season. This is the only way to see how we did this year. For instance, I wouldn't say we beat a winning team in the Jets when they were 3-2. They will likely end up around 8-8 or 7-9 by the end of the season. I still stand by my theory. Could be wrong though.

Not one comment on this? ...

I think we need to see what we've got in Hardy and Johnson for the rest of this year. WR is the last thing I think we should be chasing this offseason.

First order of duty... we need a quality head coach in this town. Make it happen. And I agree. Our needs can be handled in the draft AND in free agency. I think the deepest position in free agency is linebacker. http://www.footballsfuture.com/2010/fa/lb.html And experience is one of our biggest issues on o-line, so it would be great to see us go out and get someone like Marcus McNeill or Jared Gaither in free agency. No need for more rookies to develop, unless we somehow land a total stud. Draft the QB of the future in Bradford, Tebow, Locker, Mallett, LeFevour, or McCoy. I would then grab the best DT available in round 2. If we could somehow trade Whitner or Schobel for a high draft pick, I think we would be doing ourselves a favor. Don't get me wrong, I love Schobel and I admire Whitner's fiery attitude. But I think we need to beef up at DE, and we have good safeties in Byrd, Scott, and Wilson. We're the LAST ranked defense in rushing yards against. Something needs to change there.

Bottom line: we've got a defense that can hold mediocre-to-bad offensive teams to minimal scoring. The bend but don't break defense leaves the opposing offense on the field as long as they can, trying to force errors/turnovers. We rarely give up big pass plays, as we play opposing WR's with a huge cushion. The problem is, the defense begins to get tired if our offense can't produce. And that's when good offenses will start to hammer us. Just like the Pats, Saints, and Dolphins did. Each scored 15, 17, and 21 points respectively in the 2nd half of each game. Look where the teams we lost to rank in offense: (not including the Browns game because it was a stalemate of mediocre teams) Pats - 4th Saints - 1st Dolphins - 11th Look where the teams we beat rank in offense: Jets - 19th Panthers - 25th Buccaneers - 28th If the opposing offense is just as mediocre as ours, the game is up in the air (like the Browns game). We have a chance at winning those games. The rest of the schedule should look something like this based on the strength of opposing offenses: Houston - 13th ranked offense - LOSS Titans - 27th - WIN Jaguars - 21st - WIN (Likely a close game. Should come down to the end.) Miami - 11th - LOSS Jets - 19th - LOSS (Another close battle. I'm guessing they get revenge this time) Chiefs - 26th - WIN Patriots - 4th - LOSS Atlanta - 12th - LOSS Colts - 2nd - LOSS Based on this prediction, we're looking at anywhere from a 5-11 to a 7-9 season depending on a couple close battles with the Jags and Jets. Our fate can change, however. We have to do something to fix this offense. We've got to keep our best weapons on the field. I would play Freddy in the slot more often, as he makes things happen out there. We should try Hardy and Johnson out there more and more to see if we can get some production out of them as well. Nelson's return should be big since Fine hasn't produced also. We need our home run hitters out there as much as possible, and we need to give them opportunities to succeed. Our fate depends on it.

Gruden took them to the playoffs in three separate seasons, and actually WON a Superbowl with them. I'm pretty sure he was a successful coach there.