Shanahan could be Bills' top choice

[Flbillsfan#1]

I'll never count Williams first season against him - it was doomed on purpose.

 

The fact of the matter is no one is going to succeed at OBD until they fix what is actually broken. It starts with the owner.

The reason Williams went 3-13 his 1st year is that instead of rebuilding the offense which was needed, he dismantled a VERY GOOD Defense for NO REASON but his own EGO, leaving him a team with no Offense or Defense.

[Bflojohn]

Well, the headline I'd really like to see is "Bills are Shanahans' first choice!", as that would mean that both sides had a mutual "want to" to get something done. I do, however, have a good feeling about the NEW direction of the Buffalo Bills IF this indeed is the aim of this franchise, going forward!!

[Alaska Darin]

The reason Williams went 3-13 his 1st year is that instead of rebuilding the offense which was needed, he dismantled a VERY GOOD Defense for NO REASON but his own EGO, leaving him a team with no Offense or Defense.

 

Revisionist history.

[Orton's Arm]

I'll take Shanahan as a coach, but no way in having total control over personnel.

Agreed. Like Marv Levy, Shanahan is better as a coach than as a GM.

[Orton's Arm]

The reason Williams went 3-13 his 1st year is that instead of rebuilding the offense which was needed, he dismantled a VERY GOOD Defense for NO REASON but his own EGO, leaving him a team with no Offense or Defense.

I disagree. I think there were several reasons why the 3-4 defense was dismantled:

 

1. The new coaching staff wasn't familiar with it. They naturally trusted something with which they had years of experience, and had seen to work, more than they trusted/understood a defensive system with which they were unfamiliar.

 

2. You could make the argument that a good coach, like Bill Belichick, is able to adapt his defense to his players and to attacking the other team's weaknesses. But neither Jerry Gray nor even Williams were good enough to do that. They were at the lower, "stick with what you know" level.

 

3. A lot of the players from the late '90s Bills defense were either aging, or were young but not very good. I can't think of any first-rate young defensive players who left or were cut, who went on to have significant success elsewhere.

 

The real mistake was TD's decision to narrow his list of head coaching candidates down to four guys with defensive backgrounds. The Bills' 3-4 defensive scheme was just fine. It was considerably better, in fact, than any of the subsequent schemes which have been used in an attempt to replace it. TD should have narrowed his list of coaching candidates down to only guys with offensive backgrounds. The kinds of guys most likely to fix the offense (which was in a shambles) while leaving the defensive scheme alone.