Marrone's Rookie Mistakes as First Year Head Coach

[FireChan]

I like Marrone because of his ties to upstate New York. I want personnel here, players and coaches, that are happy in Buffalo. Makes all the difference in the world in the locker room and the attitude on the team when the people involved actually like the area.

[PromoTheRobot]

The Bills' braintrust was desperate. They did not want to risk bringing in an experienced HC. So it was no to Lovie Smith or Ken Wisenhut, and forget CFL rising star Marc Tressman , they needed someone who could "sit in" for the time being, and there it is, we have an aspiring, yet unknown, in Doug Marrone. Here is hoping that Doug Marrone will become the "Vince Lomardi" of our Buffalo Bills. Yet, before we can annoint him that distinction, Marrone will need to understand his shortcomings and address them. I would characterize his first year as a mixed bag, some positive, some less so. Among his strenghts, are a willingness to take no excuses for the outcome, despite the poor hand dealt to him. He could have easily have ducked behind the long list of key injuries, especially at the start of the season, and having a rookie QB, that also suffered growing pains and key injuries, along with just plain bad luck, and inexperience, etc, But he has yet to cite those as excuses, as much as they are indeed plausible.

 

 

The other side of the equation is Marrone's shortsighted or perhaps naieve belief that he or any of his understudies could "coach up" the rookie QB and do it without injecting even a modicom of competition, let's face it Kevin Kolb was a smoke screen at best. Add to that his accepting at face value, a very inept offensive line, that Marrone mistakenly believed could be "coached up" to competentcy. and after that didn't work, he eventually conceded and started tinkering with the almost weekly replacements. Yet perhaps most egregious was deferring to an OC' that, while well intentioned, was clearly in over his head. I would add to that he was guilty of failing to provide due diligence, by not extending the courtesty of even considering retaining Joe A. (former O lne coach),and Pete M. (former TE coach) and anybody, short of Ronnie Jones, as the Bills' special teams coach, instead he opted for favors owed or hiring past S.U cronies (even excusing Nathaniel Hackett, although I think the senior Hackett would have been a far better choice as O.C. and son Nate as the QB coach). I have personally been paying close attention to a recent trend that involves hiring experienced coaching assistants (e.g.. over the age of 65) to serve as mentors. I am fascinated by this concept and would hope that the Bills' regime is open to the idea. Hey Marv, how about returning as Bills' special teams mentor?

Hilarious fan fiction.