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Dear Sirs,
I see you have made your decision then. I am sure you must have agonised for hours over the merits of the coaches that were available this offseason and came to the conclusion that Dick Jauron was the best man available for the Bills' job. I admire the fact that you have made a decision based obviously on pure footballing know-how and not at all on the fact that neither of you want to spend any money on getting a top notch coach in Buffalo.
Let's have a look at the options out there, the guys who were available who you decided to overlook in favour of keeping Dick Jauron, a man who has put together three consecutive 7-9 seasons as head coach of the Bills.
Firstly there was Bill Cowher. Possibly the best coach available at the moment, and no Bills fan realistically expected him to come to Buffalo, partly because we knew he would never stand for your meddling in his job, but mainly because we knew there was no way you would ever pay the sort of money that he wanted. Also he'd have wanted to be GM as well as coach, and that would have spelt the end of that part of Russ's job, and we really couldn't have had that, could we? The chin has won a Super Bowl and has a record of developing young QBs and turning them into stars. If you can't see the similarities in Trent Edwards and Ben Roethelisberger than there may well be no hope for this franchise.
Next we come to Marty Schottenheimer. A former Bill. A coach with a 60% regular season winning percentage, and while his playoff record is less than stellar at least he gets teams to the playoffs. He wouldn't have come cheap, and he would have wanted to take some of Russ's responsibilities off him, but he'd surely have been a step up over a man with only one winning season his entire coaching career.
The third name that comes to mind is a guy I thought we might actually have had a chance to get, Brian Billick. Not everyone's cup of tea, but possibly the best fit for Buffalo. He knows how to get results with less than stellar offensive production. He knows that if your QB and WRs aren't working well you run the ball. 50 times if necessary. If he had been in charge you know Lynch and Jackson would have put up ridiculous numbers, and the defense holding opponents to 13 points or less would have been sufficient for the Bills to win games.
Let's go a step further, and look at some of the coaches who WERE fired at the end of this season. Eric Mangini led the Jets to a 9-7 record. He lost his job because his QB made stupid reckless decisions that cost the team points and games, and really, bar a shocking play call from Jauron and even worse execution by Losman would have cost them the game against the Bills. Mike Shanahan has won two rings, that's right, two. Admittedly his team collapsed from sure-fire division champions to not even making the playoffs over the final 4 weeks of the season, but that was a four week collapse gentlemen, not a 10 week collapse like the Jauron led Bills provided. I would like to remind you at this point that we were 5-1 at one point this season. In the last 10 games we went 2-8, with the only victories being on the road against Denver and Kansas City. I suppose I should be glad you didn't sign Mr 0-16 himself, though Marinelli was the victim of circumstance to a certain extent. As for Romeo Crennel, he did enough damage in Cleveland that he should never be considered for a head coaching position again.
So, to recap, at the exact point in time you announced that Dick Jauron was staying on as head coach of the Bills the following coaches were available: Bill Cowher, Marty Schottenheimer, Brian Billick, Eric Mangini, Mike Shanahan, Rod Marinelli, Romeo Crennel and hell, let's just throw Steve Mariucci's name in there for good measure. Out of that collection of available coaching talent (or non talent in Crennel's case) you felt it would be in the team's best interest to bring back Dick Jauron. I admire your bravery in making that decision, knowing that the entire fan base would be against it and knowing that it would make you the laughing stock of the league, but I can't help but feel it was a touch foolish given the other options available.
In closing, I would like to express my thorough disappointment with the offensive play-calling over the past weeks, my disppointment with the wasted time-outs by the head coach, my disappointment with the Cover 2 defense which at times is more like "Cover Who?" and finally my disappointment with the ownership of the operation, who cannot see that the current coaching set-up will acheive nothing more than below average performances for the years to come.
I am starting to think that some of the more paranoid Bills fans I speak with are correct, and that you are simply softening the city up for the day when the team moves. Creating an environment where the fans will simply stop caring about the team, because it is obvious that the organisation no longer cares about them. If I can feel this from the far side of the Atlantic, as a fan who has no real ties to the city of Buffalo, then how do you think your actions are being seen by the local fans, the people who go to the games, buy over-priced food inside the stadium, and generally fund the team week in and week out? You should be ashamed of youselves, and you should actively seek a buyer who will guarantee to keep the team in Buffalo, because two things are now abundantly clear, you have no interest in creating a successful team, and you have no feelings at all for the fans and the people of Buffalo.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel K*****
A Bills fan in Ireland.
I see you have made your decision then. I am sure you must have agonised for hours over the merits of the coaches that were available this offseason and came to the conclusion that Dick Jauron was the best man available for the Bills' job. I admire the fact that you have made a decision based obviously on pure footballing know-how and not at all on the fact that neither of you want to spend any money on getting a top notch coach in Buffalo.
Let's have a look at the options out there, the guys who were available who you decided to overlook in favour of keeping Dick Jauron, a man who has put together three consecutive 7-9 seasons as head coach of the Bills.
Firstly there was Bill Cowher. Possibly the best coach available at the moment, and no Bills fan realistically expected him to come to Buffalo, partly because we knew he would never stand for your meddling in his job, but mainly because we knew there was no way you would ever pay the sort of money that he wanted. Also he'd have wanted to be GM as well as coach, and that would have spelt the end of that part of Russ's job, and we really couldn't have had that, could we? The chin has won a Super Bowl and has a record of developing young QBs and turning them into stars. If you can't see the similarities in Trent Edwards and Ben Roethelisberger than there may well be no hope for this franchise.
Next we come to Marty Schottenheimer. A former Bill. A coach with a 60% regular season winning percentage, and while his playoff record is less than stellar at least he gets teams to the playoffs. He wouldn't have come cheap, and he would have wanted to take some of Russ's responsibilities off him, but he'd surely have been a step up over a man with only one winning season his entire coaching career.
The third name that comes to mind is a guy I thought we might actually have had a chance to get, Brian Billick. Not everyone's cup of tea, but possibly the best fit for Buffalo. He knows how to get results with less than stellar offensive production. He knows that if your QB and WRs aren't working well you run the ball. 50 times if necessary. If he had been in charge you know Lynch and Jackson would have put up ridiculous numbers, and the defense holding opponents to 13 points or less would have been sufficient for the Bills to win games.
Let's go a step further, and look at some of the coaches who WERE fired at the end of this season. Eric Mangini led the Jets to a 9-7 record. He lost his job because his QB made stupid reckless decisions that cost the team points and games, and really, bar a shocking play call from Jauron and even worse execution by Losman would have cost them the game against the Bills. Mike Shanahan has won two rings, that's right, two. Admittedly his team collapsed from sure-fire division champions to not even making the playoffs over the final 4 weeks of the season, but that was a four week collapse gentlemen, not a 10 week collapse like the Jauron led Bills provided. I would like to remind you at this point that we were 5-1 at one point this season. In the last 10 games we went 2-8, with the only victories being on the road against Denver and Kansas City. I suppose I should be glad you didn't sign Mr 0-16 himself, though Marinelli was the victim of circumstance to a certain extent. As for Romeo Crennel, he did enough damage in Cleveland that he should never be considered for a head coaching position again.
So, to recap, at the exact point in time you announced that Dick Jauron was staying on as head coach of the Bills the following coaches were available: Bill Cowher, Marty Schottenheimer, Brian Billick, Eric Mangini, Mike Shanahan, Rod Marinelli, Romeo Crennel and hell, let's just throw Steve Mariucci's name in there for good measure. Out of that collection of available coaching talent (or non talent in Crennel's case) you felt it would be in the team's best interest to bring back Dick Jauron. I admire your bravery in making that decision, knowing that the entire fan base would be against it and knowing that it would make you the laughing stock of the league, but I can't help but feel it was a touch foolish given the other options available.
In closing, I would like to express my thorough disappointment with the offensive play-calling over the past weeks, my disppointment with the wasted time-outs by the head coach, my disappointment with the Cover 2 defense which at times is more like "Cover Who?" and finally my disappointment with the ownership of the operation, who cannot see that the current coaching set-up will acheive nothing more than below average performances for the years to come.
I am starting to think that some of the more paranoid Bills fans I speak with are correct, and that you are simply softening the city up for the day when the team moves. Creating an environment where the fans will simply stop caring about the team, because it is obvious that the organisation no longer cares about them. If I can feel this from the far side of the Atlantic, as a fan who has no real ties to the city of Buffalo, then how do you think your actions are being seen by the local fans, the people who go to the games, buy over-priced food inside the stadium, and generally fund the team week in and week out? You should be ashamed of youselves, and you should actively seek a buyer who will guarantee to keep the team in Buffalo, because two things are now abundantly clear, you have no interest in creating a successful team, and you have no feelings at all for the fans and the people of Buffalo.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel K*****
A Bills fan in Ireland.
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