Is Jim Leonhard actually our prized offseason acquisition

[TFBillsfan]

Hard question. Bills have many areas where they are strong but it’s hard to know how a 1st year HC and first year DC will do in pressure moments. The DL and LBers are my biggest concerns on the roster. It would be a small miracle, if we could just go into the playoffs healthy. 
 

From a player perspective, it has to be Moore. 
 

 

[Buffalo ill]

I'm putting too much faith in DJ and voted for him.  I probably should have vited for Leonard because coaches typically do not miss games due to injury. 

 

That's not a dig at Moore.  Von Miller was a difference maker until he blew out his knee.

[NewEra]

33 minutes ago, Einstein said:

Philly, Houston, Steelers, Carolina, Miami x1, Jets x2, and Chiefs (with Mahomes).

NO beat it by 1 point.

Not sure which Miami game you’re alluding to in which they scored less than they averaged.

 

Houston was under by .7 

[chris heff]

33 minutes ago, NewEra said:

Not sure which Miami game you’re alluding to in which they scored less than they averaged.

 

Houston was under by .7 

If you do the math, the “ by design” defense worked 53% of the time in the regular season and considerably less in the playoffs.

[Einstein]

1 hour ago, NewEra said:

Not sure which Miami game you’re alluding to in which they scored less than they averaged.

Miami with Tua scored 21.14 points per game. We played the Tua led Miami Dolphins in Week 3 and held them under that. 

Miami's average points per game for the year dropped because they benched Tua the last 3 games. 

[Kwai San]

11 hours ago, Dillenger4 said:

Without a doubt - it's Jim LenRod and John Fox. That combo has proven to have a top 5 D in the NFL as well as a #1 D for two years straight in College. Coaches like this do not just lose their drive or standards. We scored a JEM in LenRod and Fox. A lot of media pundits agree that Jim LenRod was the D in Denver and not Vance Joseph. I tend to agree.

Our D will be much tougher to play against this year. Add this to an already good offense, one of the best RB's in the NFL, and we have a winning combo.

Chubb, Hoecht, Alford and CJGJ. Oh boy... that's a gang from compton yo/

WTAF is a JEM??????

[NewEra]

11 minutes ago, Einstein said:

Miami with Tua scored 21.14 points per game. We played the Tua led Miami Dolphins in Week 3 and held them under that. 

Miami's average points per game for the year dropped because they benched Tua the last 3 games. 

lol.  If it makes you sleep better.  We played 6 games against playoff teams.  we had a patsy cake schedule and, more often than not, our opponents scored more vs our d than they averaged.  In the season ending loss, our opponent scored almost 10 more points than they averaged.  
 

Our defense was not good last year  I don’t think it was terrible.  Yet again, it wasn’t good enough when it had to be.  Just like McDermott.  Good, but not good enough 

[Einstein]

Just now, NewEra said:

In the season ending loss, our opponent scored almost 10 more points than they averaged.  

Do you think that possibly had something to do with 5 offensive turnovers? 

Let's look at the rest of the stats to see:

- Broncos averaged 342 yards per game in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 264 yards in regular time.
- Broncos averaged 118 yards rushing per game in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 70 yards rushing in regular time.
- Broncos averaged 19.3 first downs per game in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 19 first downs in regular time.
- Broncos averaged 55.56% in the redzone in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 25%.
- Broncos averaged 5.2 yards per play in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 5.1 yards per play.

Bills defense played quite well in that game. The story was 5 turnovers. No defense is going to perform well in that scenario.

[NewEra]

2 minutes ago, Einstein said:

Do you think that possibly had something to do with 5 offensive turnovers? 

Let's look at the rest of the stats to see:

- Broncos averaged 342 yards per game in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 264 yards in regular time.
- Broncos averaged 118 yards rushing per game in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 70 yards rushing in regular time.
- Broncos averaged 19.3 first downs per game in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 19 first downs in regular time.
- Broncos averaged 55.56% in the redzone in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 25%.
- Broncos averaged 5.2 yards per play in the regular season. Bills defense gave up 5.1 yards per play.

Bills defense played quite well in that game. The story was 5 turnovers. No defense is going to perform well in that scenario.

My bad, the defense was good. You’re right.  They were good in the 2nd half until they had to be.

[NewEra]

McD-  “Alright team, 1 minute left in the game. We’re up 4.  A FG does them no good.  Tre is out for this one play….. So I’m gonna bring the house!!! Dane Jackson, you’re up son!!  You’ll have to cover their fastest player one on one. I Billieve in you man!!””  

brilliance 

[reddogblitz]

10 hours ago, JakeFrommStateFarm said:

This is what I'm worried about as well.

 

There have been plenty of college coaches that tried to install their college system at the NFL level and fail miserably. 

 

Hopefully that is not the case here

 

This.

 

And another thing that concerns me is he is a Rex disciple and says he wants to implement some of that.   I remember when Rex was here we had great D players and still was very good. He had to bring in Jim Leonard because he understood and could help the guys learn and run it.  It was still not very effective.  I remember a game I was at Leveon Bell ran for 206.

 

I guess my concern is his D might be hard for the guys to lean and thus make mistakes.  For Jim to be a great add, our D has to be Better this year than last.  If not, we're marking time.  Josh is 30 ...

[Gregg]

13 hours ago, JakeFrommStateFarm said:

This is what I'm worried about as well.

 

There have been plenty of college coaches that tried to install their college system at the NFL level and fail miserably. 

 

Hopefully that is not the case here

 

Leonhard was on Vance Jospeh's staff with the Broncos. So, he does have NFL experience. We will have to see how he does since he will be the one in charge of building the defense. I do expect growing pains early on. Look at the first 5 games at Texans, Lions, Chargers, Patriots, at Rams. Some really good offenses and QBs in this group. I mentioned this before, but I wouldn't be surprised if the starting defense plays a little more this preseason than they normally would. There is no substitute for live game action even in a preseason game.

[Don Otreply]

17 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yes I know. But I was responding specifically to the "if we could just get to 23 we'd be guaranteed to win." The D did basically get to 23. The O turned it over twice in their own end and both times the Bills pitched a 3 and out.

Be that as it may, the highest priority change is having a a defense that does its job with a higher level of success, especially in the playoffs, which as we know has been the biggest issue thus far, statistically the offense has had far more success in comparison, that is not to say that the offense side doesn’t bare responsibility for its shortcomings, but it had been the McDermott defensive that let the team down with the most frequency. Time will tell if the changes come to fruition. Fingers crossed, and all the other superstitious ceremonies that aren’t crazy if they work, lol 

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, Don Otreply said:

Be that as it may, the highest priority change is having a a defense that does its job with a higher level of success, especially in the playoffs, which as we know has been the biggest issue thus far, statistically the offense has had far more success in comparison, that is not to say that the offense side doesn’t bare responsibility for its shortcomings, but it had been the McDermott defensive that let the team down with the most frequency. Time will tell if the changes come to fruition. Fingers crossed, and all the other superstitious ceremonies that aren’t crazy if they work, lol 

 

That point is not in dispute.

[Don Otreply]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

 

That point is not in dispute.

Then what have all these years of thread pages, and post comments been about, lol 

[GunnerBill]

12 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

Then what have all these years of thread pages, and post comments been about, lol 

 

They are about the nuance and the detail. Because it matters if the Bills are going to fix it. Oversimplifying the analysis of the problem likely means finding the wrong solutions. 

[Nihilarian]

4 hours ago, reddogblitz said:

This.

 

And another thing that concerns me is he is a Rex disciple and says he wants to implement some of that.   I remember when Rex was here we had great D players and still was very good. He had to bring in Jim Leonard because he understood and could help the guys learn and run it.  It was still not very effective.  I remember a game I was at Leveon Bell ran for 206.

 

I guess my concern is his D might be hard for the guys to lean and thus make mistakes.  For Jim to be a great add, our D has to be Better this year than last.  If not, we're marking time.  Josh is 30 ...

Wrex Ryan as the Buffalo Bills head coach in 2015 intrigued me because he had six seasons as the NY Jets HC, and he did well in NY at first. 2009-2014. 

 

What I find odd is that in his first game as the Bills' new HC, his Buffalo defense trounced the Colts with Andrew Luck, creating massive pressure on Luck and getting 2x sacks. 2x INTs. Luck went 26 of 49 for 246 yards with a passer rating of 63.6. 

 

Let me tell you, after watching that Colts game, I was very excited to see what Wrex would do against the Patriots the next week. Needless to say, it was a totally different story against NE with Tom Brady at QB. Now, we didn't see any of that pressure on Brady that we saw against Luck... Like night and day. While Buffalo did sack Brady 2x, it just wasn't the same pressure-wise. Brady was hitting Edelman all over the field: 19 targets, 11 receptions for 97 yards, 2 TDs.

 

Buffalo did beat the Miami Dolphins the next week, 40-14, but then fell on their proverbial face the following weeks. Buffalo went from the #4 overall defense in 2014 under Jim Schwartz to 15 PA, 19 yards in 2015. Going from the best defensive line in the NFL, #1 in sacks in 2014 with 54 sacks, to 31st in 2015. Mario Williams went from 14.5 sacks in 2014 to 5 sacks in 2015. 

 

Now, that pass rush under Schwartz let his D- line players wreak havoc by allowing them to pin their ears back and go all out after the passer. Ryan changed that after week one in 2015 by asking his highly paid D-line to drop into pass coverage or eat blocks while his linebackers made the plays. Therein lies the problem as those LBers stunk: Nigel Bradham-Preston Brown-Manny Lawson-AJ Tarpley-Randell Johnson-Kevin Riddick-Tony Stewart. 

 

Contrary to popular belief, DBJim Leonhard was in Buffalo 2005-2007 and returned in 2013 to play SS. He was with the NY Jets 2009-2011 under Ryan. 

 

It made me wonder if Rex Ryan was really that stupid to attempt to implement his scheme with the wrong players... just because. Or did he receive death threats from those crazy ass Jets fans against him and his family? I dunno...

 

What I do think is that Jim Leonhard is smart enough to utilize the players he has to fit what he wants to do with his scheme. His LBers currently are WSLB Groot-LILB Dorian Williams-RILB Terrell Bernard-SSLB Bradley Chubb. Oh yeah.  No scrubs here!  D-line is LDE TJ Sanders- NT Dion Walker-RDE Ed Oliver. 

Bishop-Stone-Hairston-CJGJ. 

 

Good stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Don Otreply]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

 

They are about the nuance and the detail. Because it matters if the Bills are going to fix it. Oversimplifying the analysis of the problem likely means finding the wrong solutions. 

Fans could certainly have fun getting lost in the weeds on the defenses issues.  What was not working well on defense really did not require much analysis to understand, or to see what needed to be done.  The real frustration for years was the one who could implement a fix, didn’t know how, or didn’t recognize a fix was needed…,  that lack of action resulted in the team being at the point it is now,  for better or worse , time will tell if the fix works. 

 

We fans don’t do the fixing, all the nuance and detail do indeed matter, but we fans are not in that loop. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GunnerBill]

5 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

Fans could certainly have fun getting lost in the weeds on the defenses issues.  What was not working well on defense really did not require much analysis to understand, or to see what needed to be done.  The real frustration for years was the one who could implement a fix, didn’t know how, or didn’t recognize a fix was needed…,  that lack of action resulted in the team being at the point it is now,  for better or worse , time will tell if the fix works. 

 

We fans don’t do the fixing, all the nuance and detail do indeed matter, but we fans are not in that loop. 

 

 

I disagree. Getting in the weeds was necessary to really understand the what and the why.

[chris heff]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

They are about the nuance and the detail. Because it matters if the Bills are going to fix it. Oversimplifying the analysis of the problem likely means finding the wrong solutions. 

Occam’s Razor