D&C's Maiorana: Dennison's Offense Uninspiring

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

 

Should Bills' offensive coordinator Rick Dennison be on the hot seat?

 

Sal Maiorana, @salmaiorana Published 9:34 a.m. ET Dec. 1, 2017 | Updated 9:51 a.m. ET Dec. 1, 2017

 

ORCHARD PARK – One of the biggest decisions Bills head coach Sean McDermott will be confronted with when the 2017 season ends is whether he should retain offensive coordinator Rick Dennison.

 

Dennison has not distinguished himself as a play-caller this season, his offense has stammered almost since day one, and it currently sits in the bottom quarter of the NFL in total yards, passing yards, sacks per attempt, and first downs, and is 22nd in scoring.

 

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/2017/12/01/buffalo-bills-rick-dennison-hot-seat-sean-mcdermott/912666001/

 

Edited December 1, 2017 by OldTimeAFLGuy

[Jobot]

This article was uninspiring...

[BuffaloBill]

If McDermott hopes to survive as a HC he really needs to make a change here.  It’s no secret that Dennison was not his first choice.  

[BadLandsMeanie]

He offers no substance.

 

Before the Pats game I hope to be able to show you guys a play or two that made me wonder how much is on Dennison.

 

Personally I started to wonder.

[I'm Spartacus]

I hate new coaches that come in here (seems like every two years), and force their defensive or offensive philosophy down the teams throat.

Can we get a coach that uses balance between "scheme" and "players strength's"?

[reddogblitz]

Thanks Obvious Man.

[Happy]

The article offered nothing new, most of us already were aware of the things Sal mentioned.

I think the Bills mentally will come to play, and play well.  It's Dennison I worry about, he won't be able to out maneuver Matt Patricia.

 

[DCBongo]

Should the Bills win on Sunday and/or make the playoffs and play well in said playoff game McD would have to keep Dennison if he wanted to stay.  Outside of this, even if the Bills get the 6th seed I feel McD will break up with his offensive coordinator, but they will stay the best of friends.

[Foreigner]

Good column. It really was not too cool sitting on the lead with mostly running plays. Play calling

with leads all year has been way to conservative. If you are going to lose against the Pats, lose

by throwing the ball down the field, not with negative run plays into the middle of the defense.

[BillsFanMike]

Get him out of here. 

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

50 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

If McDermott hopes to survive as a HC he really needs to make a change here.  It’s no secret that Dennison was not his first choice.  

 

 

......thought I read here that McCoy was.......interestingly, he's been canned as Broncos OC already and was less than inspiring as Chargers HC..........wonder why he was McD's first choice and maybe he settled on Dennison as another Kubiak disciple......

[LABILLBACKER]

1 hour ago, BuffaloBill said:

If McDermott hopes to survive as a HC he really needs to make a change here.  It’s no secret that Dennison was not his first choice.  

Dennison is absolutely awful and even worse than Hackett. At least Lynn recognized TT's strengths and was able to squeeze 24 pts/game out if him last year. Our wr corp and Oline are worse this year and I just don't see RD making any inspiring changes. Poor hire by Sean!

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

19 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Dennison is absolutely awful and even worse than Hackett. At least Lynn recognized TT's strengths and was able to squeeze 24 pts/game out if him last year. Our wr corp and Oline are worse this year and I just don't see RD making any inspiring changes. Poor hire by Sean!

 

...he is as much an empty suit as Fairchild was.......re-read the draft prognostications about Losman in 2004.....pundits called him the "heir apparent gunslinger to Favre going to the Pack at #23"......Tom Terrific snookered the Pack and gave up a ton to pick him at #22.....still remember a Losman presser where he said, "wait 'til you see when we open this thing up"......sure the kid had his flaws, but he did have an arm (to go along with his happy feet)...BUT Fairchild never budged and now we have Dennison who won't budge to exploit TT's mobility because of his vaunted system.....so knowing that he'll force the issue of TT being gone in 2018, we sacrifice W's in 2017 to prove his point?......

Edited December 2, 2017 by OldTimeAFLGuy

[Gray Beard]

Almost everybody talked about how bad Hackett was as an OC.  When he left, things improved.

Now almost everybody is talking about how bad Dennison is as an OC.

Why do coaches stick with such obviously bad assistants? Pride? Stubbornness? Friendship? Loyalty? Fear of appearing indecisive?

[Happy]

31 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

Almost everybody talked about how bad Hackett was as an OC.  When he left, things improved.

Now almost everybody is talking about how bad Dennison is as an OC.

Why do coaches stick with such obviously bad assistants? Pride? Stubbornness? Friendship? Loyalty? Fear of appearing indecisive?

As much as I would like to have seen Dennison canned yesterday, who would be the OC?  Not sure they have their Anthony Lynn on staff this year.

So we have to wait it out for the remainder of this season.  If McDermott keeps Dennison around next season, that would be dumb on his part since Dennison makes McDermott look bad.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Happy Gilmore

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

8 minutes ago, Happy Gilmore said:

As much as I would like to have seen Dennison canned yesterday, who would be the OC?  Not sure they have their Anthony Lynn on staff this year.

So we have to wait it out for the remainder of this season.  If McDermott keeps Dennison around next season, that would be dumb on his part since Dennison makes McDermott look bad.

 

...NOW would be a bad move and solves nothing....however, IF McD is the guy in charge, he tells Dennison was he likes or dislikes about the offensive game( plan(s) and what he wants going forward.....man up as the Big Dawg or let the tail wag the dog...............

[Happy]

Just now, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

...NOW would be a bad move and solves nothing....however, IF McD is the guy in charge, he tells Dennison was he likes or dislikes about the offensive game( plan(s) and what he wants going forward.....man up as the Big Dawg or let the tail wag the dog...............

I completely agree that McDermott should be telling Dennison what he wants to see and what he doesn't want to see at this point; playoffs are on the line and I'll go out on a limb and say that McDermott wants to make the playoffs.  Dennison has proven that he should not be trusted with game planning and play calls.

[SoTier]

21 minutes ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

...he is as much an empty suit as Fairchild was.......re-read the draft prognostications about Losman in 2004.....pundits called him the "heir apparent gunslinger to Favre going to the Pack at #23"......Tom Terrific snookered the Pack and gave up a ton to pick him at #22.....still remember a Losman presser where he said, "wait 'til you see when we open thing thing up"......sure the kid had his flaws, but he did have an arm (to go along with his happy feet)...BUT Fairchild never budged and now we have Dennison who won't budge to exploit TT's mobility because of his vaunted system.....so knowing that he'll force the issue of TT being gone in 2018, we sacrifice W's in 2017 to prove his point?......

 

  Totally agree.  I said something similar in another thread the other day. 

 

Who cares if Tyrod Taylor isn't "the future"?  He's who the Bills have now, and while he's not a top shelf franchise QB, the Bills could do a whole lot worse than him.  If creating a game plan structured to his talents -- and the talents of the OLers and RBs -- can get the Bills more wins, maybe even make the playoffs as a WC, how is that a bad thing?  All this whining about how "we'd be one and done" is nonsense, too.  Any team can win in the WC round ... especially this year.  More importantly, winning and making the playoffs in 2017 certainly doesn't preclude a team from improving in 2018 and aiming higher, including drafting a "QB for the future".

[transplantbillsfan]

3 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

If McDermott hopes to survive as a HC he really needs to make a change here.  It’s no secret that Dennison was not his first choice.  

 

Watch out now... even implying McDermott could be fired might be construed as a ridiculous premature take

[BillsFan130]

He is awful. Like Nate Hackett bad

[PABillsfan23]

Good OCs have a good QB.. We don’t dont 

[rant_and_go_returns]

Good QBs are made because of good HC and OC who click and share a vision.

Asking a OC to change his system is a lot harder than asking a QB to make plays a college QB would make.

It looks like TT is avoiding injury, re: @ Tennesse in his first year. If he checks down or throws it out of bounds vs NE at home, his career is over. Time for him to sell out.

[BuffaloRush]

We all agree that Dennison's offense is conservative and yes...uninspiring.  We don't truly know what McDermott's feeling is about the offense.  It's very possible that McDermott shares the same offensive philosophy as Dennison.  If that's the case, we can forget about every getting a young coordinator in here with new ideas.  We're going to be stuck with the old tired West Coast offense from 20 years for the next few years...or until McDermott himself gets fired.

 

Someone here was correct - they said that Dennision basically "Rex Ryan'ed" the offense.  He took a group of players that were average pass blockers and good run blockers, and made them below average in both areas.  The personnel just doesn't seem to fit what he wants.

 

In the end, McDermott's job could depend on how he handled the OC position

 

[aceman_16]

Geez Sal...  I expect more than this JV journalistic dribble from you.

[bmur66]

After one of the 3 butt whoopins in a row he was saying how they need to figure out what they do well and build from it. We all know what they do well and it involves a heavy dose of what Tyrod Taylor is good at. For some reason that doesn't fit with Dennison's offense. So the way I see it when the Bills are eliminated from contention they make the move to Peterman and see how that works out. Either way McD is going to have some major decisions to make.

[BuffaloMatt]

16 hours ago, DCBongo said:

Should the Bills win on Sunday and/or make the playoffs and play well in said playoff game McD would have to keep Dennison if he wanted to stay.  Outside of this, even if the Bills get the 6th seed I feel McD will break up with his offensive coordinator, but they will stay the best of friends.

He loves Dennison, BUT he is not in love with him. Sources said that they heard McD say he will always cherish their time together.

14 hours ago, Gray Beard said:

Almost everybody talked about how bad Hackett was as an OC.  When he left, things improved.

Now almost everybody is talking about how bad Dennison is as an OC.

Why do coaches stick with such obviously bad assistants? Pride? Stubbornness? Friendship? Loyalty? Fear of appearing indecisive?

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. 

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

17 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

  Totally agree.  I said something similar in another thread the other day. 

 

Who cares if Tyrod Taylor isn't "the future"?  He's who the Bills have now, and while he's not a top shelf franchise QB, the Bills could do a whole lot worse than him.  If creating a game plan structured to his talents -- and the talents of the OLers and RBs -- can get the Bills more wins, maybe even make the playoffs as a WC, how is that a bad thing?  All this whining about how "we'd be one and done" is nonsense, too.  Any team can win in the WC round ... especially this year.  More importantly, winning and making the playoffs in 2017 certainly doesn't preclude a team from improving in 2018 and aiming higher, including drafting a "QB for the future".

 

 

....what's irritating as hell is that McD must condone this line of thinking for it to continue......you can't convince me he doesn't see it........Management 101 stipulates that "you can delegate the task BUT you can never delegate the responsibility"........thus the task of the offense is Dennison's and the task of the defense is Frazier's (who had an inexplicable epiphany last week after 3 crippling stinkers)....BUT...McD OWNS the overall responsibility and letting this woeful offense continue is hardly what I would remotely call LEADERSHIP...

Edited December 2, 2017 by OldTimeAFLGuy

[yungmack]

5 hours ago, bmur66 said:

After one of the 3 butt whoopins in a row he was saying how they need to figure out what they do well and build from it. We all know what they do well and it involves a heavy dose of what Tyrod Taylor is good at. For some reason that doesn't fit with Dennison's offense. So the way I see it when the Bills are eliminated from contention they make the move to Peterman and see how that works out. Either way McD is going to have some major decisions to make.

It also involves power blocking, one on one, NOT freakin' zone blocking. You know, the way it was the previous 2 years.

31 minutes ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

 

....what's irritating as hell is that McD must condone this line of thinking for it to continue......you can't convince me he doesn't see it........Management 101 stipulates that "you can delegate the task BUT you can never delegate the responsibility"........thus the task of the offense is Dennison's and the task of the defense is Frazier's (who had an inexplicable epiphany last week after 3 crippling stinkers)....BUT...McD OWNS the overall responsibility and letting this woeful offense continue is hardly what I would remotely call LEADERSHIP...

Precisely correct. The HC hires an OC who reflects his approach. If he doesn't like something about his "system," he tells him to change it. If the OC doesn't change it, he replaces him. That there have been no changes and Dennison still has a job says that McD is comfortable with this offense. I for one am concerned about putting a rookie franchise QB's future in the hands of these 2 guys. Shades of Jeff Fisher and Goff.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

12 minutes ago, yungmack said:

It also involves power blocking, one on one, NOT freakin' zone blocking. You know, the way it was the previous 2 years.

Precisely correct. The HC hires an OC who reflects his approach. If he doesn't like something about his "system," he tells him to change it. If the OC doesn't change it, he replaces him. That there have been no changes and Dennison still has a job says that McD is comfortable with this offense. I for one am concerned about putting a rookie franchise QB's future in the hands of these 2 guys. Shades of Jeff Fisher and Goff.

 

...if you and I both see it as well as a multitude of TBD posters, where the hell is purported leadership on behalf of McD?......and why does he let 9-Juan-Juan Castillo continue with his zone blocking debacle?.....hell, I still think Richie has 2 good years left....watching him pull is a thing of beauty.......go back to Holmgren's statement about about OL tandems....he said, "Hutchinson/Jones deserve the same recognition as the legendary tandem of Shell/Otto"......was "zone" even in play then?......"power" sure as hell was and we know the results of these boyz.....HOF......