Case for Bobby April

[Syderick]

I say they should give Bobby April a chance at the HC spot and see how he does. April's been interested in the HC spot for awhile, like when he interviewed here after Mularky. April is passionate, aggressive, creative and intense coach, the opposite of Jauron. He's had a top 5 special teams all the years he's been here. This year he's having an average year, especially with the penalities (still top 10 in the return yardage...etc). Those fumbles are on Parrish and Mckelvin who choose to play costly. Plus each year there's been new rules on the ST unit (wedges, overloads with onside kicks). Here's April's resume:

April was a four-year letterman as a linebacker at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana from 1972-75



1978 Southern Miss
Graduate Assistant

1979 Tulane
Tight Ends Coach

1980-1986 Arizona Wildcats
Defensive Line/Secondary Coach

1987-1990 USC Trojans
Secondary/Kicking Coach

1990 Ohio State Buckeyes
Secondary Coach

1991-1993 Atlanta Falcons
Tight Ends/Special Teams Coach

1994-1995 Pittsburgh Steelers
Special Teams Coordinator

1996-1999 New Orleans Saints
Special Teams Coordinator

2001-2003 St. Louis Rams
Special Teams Coordinator

2004-present Buffalo Bills
Assistant Head Coach and Special Teams Coordinator

http://www.buffalobills.com/team/coaches/bobby-april/f9bc1d76-529e-4de2-aafc-3ac22b2cfd3f

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_April

April has done other coaching positions besides Special Teams. With John Harbaugh having some success after being a Special Teams coach. I'm just saying give him a shot see if he's anything. If he's lucky he could be like Michael Singletary, if not bring in HC this offseason. It's better then what we got right now.

[ChristopherWalken]

As Interm...nothing more

[BoyILuvLoznStupidly]

I agree anything is better that what we have now.

[BillsWin]

unless he coaches us to a 12-4 season, Id rather go for a proven guy with a ring.

[THRILLHO]

No thanks. While he normally runs a good crew, we have had way too many special teams penalties. It seems just about every game we have an "illegal block in the back" call on S.T. Then again, a dog could run this team right now, so who cares? Bring on April!

[Devin]

Nope. He can't get our ST running right now much less the whole team. I fully expect Ralph to go cheap again.

[Philagape]

He's better than any available alternative right now. Nothing to lose, so give him the rest of the year.
Maybe they should have open tryouts; the winner of that would better than Dick.

[Mitchell55]

Id rather Fewell. He makes are CBs stay 10 yds deep, can you imagine what he can do with our WRs who are supposed to go that far?????????

[Syderick]

Id rather Fewell. He makes are CBs stay 10 yds deep, can you imagine what he can do with our WRs who are supposed to go that far?????????

Nothing? :idunno:

[Mitchell55]

Id rather Fewell. 1st hes more of a major coordinator than April. 2, he is a prodigi of Lovie Smith, 3, hes not afraid to make changes, and 4, hes coached offense and defense.

[Syderick]

Id rather Fewell. 1st hes more of a major coordinator than April. 2, he is a prodigi of Lovie Smith, 3, hes not afraid to make changes, and 4, hes coached offense and defense.

April has 30 years experience as a coach. John Harbaugh was ST coach. April is also the Asst. HC at the time being. Fewell is ok, but April would be the better option. Might aswell see what April brings to the table. Unless they talk to someone outside of the team, then it's a whole new story.

[Mitchell55]

April has 30 years experience as a coach. John Harbaugh was ST coach. April is also the Asst. HC at the time being. Fewell is ok, but April would be the better option. Might aswell see what April brings to the table. Unless they talk to someone outside of the team, then it's a whole new story.


Fewell has 24 years of coaching and when Harbaugh was hired he was a DB coach.

[Syderick]

April's got experience coaching in other positions. Also 30 years is more then 24.

[Beastie Bills]

This year he's having an average year, especially with the penalities (still top 10 in the return yardage...etc). Those fumbles are on Parrish and Mckelvin who choose to play costly.

Really? I'd like to know where you got your stats (actually, I'm assuming that you're just guessing). Because we are not in the top 10 in any special teams category. We are 19th in Kick Returns, 15th in Punt Returns, 20th in Kick Coverage & 12th in Punt Coverage.

Bobby April sucks. Our Special Teams has no discipline (most penalized in the league), and no brains. Did you see Bobby "rallying the troops" yesterday, while Cleveland was about to punt the ball?

I hope that we clean house in the offseason, and I want April gone along with the rest of these bums.

The only reason anybody thinks April is any good, is because he has one of the best punters of all time, and he's had some very talented Return Men.

[Jan Reimers]

I don't want anyone from this putrid staff anywhere near our head coaching position.

[BidsJr]

Screw Bobby April, Screw Perry Fewell. The entire staff needs to be wiped off the field and honestly I don't give a crap if it happens next week and we forfeit the last 11 games.

Next year is one of the deepest drafts in memory and the team needs to be blown up.

Trade Lynch and Evans, stockpile picks and get someone who know what the #(@& they are doing in here.

[LooneyBin]

Nobody knows what April's got, but first let him coach the remainder of the season. If he somehow gets the team turned around, then they can talk head coach next year.

[colin]

i think we have had some special guys for their position on special teams and now that there is no more wedge in the nfl april is exposed. he has sucked ass this year and we lost 2 games due to special teams fumbles and had a bad one against NO. roscoe has also been a yard losing clown on a regular basis. *** april he needs to go.

[BidsJr]

Nobody knows what April's got, but first let him coach the remainder of the season. If he somehow gets the team turned around, then they can talk head coach next year.

This is not the point. Nobody is going to turn around our offensive line, soft 4-3 Tampa 2 or skittish QB this season. If they do it is nothing but an illusion. We need to flush the season and star over fresh.

If that means drafting a QB and letting them sit a year while Trent gets killed by our still young OL then so be it.

I am over this coaching staff and the next guy needs to be able to pick HIS guys.

[Beastie Bills]

Screw Bobby April, Screw Perry Fewell. The entire staff needs to be wiped off the field and honestly I don't give a crap if it happens next week and we forfeit the last 11 games.

Next year is one of the deepest drafts in memory and the team needs to be blown up.

Trade Lynch and Evans, stockpile picks and get someone who know what the #(@& they are doing in here.

I agree 100% on the first part. I want everybody between Ralph and the Players gone. Every coach. Every front-office person. All of them. (I'd fire Ralph too if I could).

And I agree on trying to trade Evans to stockpile picks. He is incredibly overrated. He's not a game-changer in any way, but I feel like the rest of the league thinks he's great, so we should explore trading him. If we could somehow get a 1st for him, we need to do it asap.

I don't agree about lynch though. Lynch has been great on a terrible team, with a pathetic joke of an OLine. Imagine what he could do with a good team around him. He can be an elite back in this league. Plus, he's still young, so we can rebuild next year, and he'll still be in his prime when we start getting good. There's no need to trade him.

[BidsJr]

I agree 100% on the first part. I want everybody between Ralph and the Players gone. Every coach. Every front-office person. All of them. (I'd fire Ralph too if I could).

And I agree on trying to trade Evans to stockpile picks. He is incredibly overrated. He's not a game-changer in any way, but I feel like the rest of the league thinks he's great, so we should explore trading him. If we could somehow get a 1st for him, we need to do it asap.

I don't agree about lynch though. Lynch has been great on a terrible team, with a pathetic joke of an OLine. Imagine what he could do with a good team around him. He can be an elite back in this league. Plus, he's still young, so we can rebuild next year, and he'll still be in his prime when we start getting good. There's no need to trade him.


Sorry but by the time we are done rebuilding again Lynch will be too old to carry the load.

Let Freddie bridge the gap and draft a fresh one in 2 years when we are about to turn the corner. At least we could get a couple of picks for him in an incredibly deep draft.

[Beastie Bills]

Sorry but by the time we are done rebuilding again Lynch will be too old to carry the load.

Let Freddie bridge the gap and draft a fresh one in 2 years when we are about to turn the corner. At least we could get a couple of picks for him in an incredibly deep draft.

I don't know. If (and this is a big IF), we rebuild the right way, we could be good in 2011.

We have some good young OLinemen (Wood/Levitre/Butler). Bell has potential, but he is still VERY raw. We need to draft 2 Tackles this year. One defense, we need LB's bad. Also, we'll need a DT. If we get those pieces this year, and let them develop, they COULD be good in 2011. Then, we get a QB to step in. I'm not usually a big fan of playing rookie QB's, but if you have a good OLine, and a good team around them, they can manage the game, and make enough plays to be good.

[HHURRICANE]

This team needs an architect. Someone who can be a coach and have final say on personnel decisions.

Billick, Shannahan, Shottenheimer or maybe Holmgren.

Bobby April is as big a buffoon as Jauron.

[LooneyBin]

Forget it. Richard is staying.

[Syderick]

Really? I'd like to know where you got your stats (actually, I'm assuming that you're just guessing). Because we are not in the top 10 in any special teams category. We are 19th in Kick Returns, 15th in Punt Returns, 20th in Kick Coverage & 12th in Punt Coverage.
Bobby April sucks. Our Special Teams has no discipline (most penalized in the league), and no brains. Did you see Bobby "rallying the troops" yesterday, while Cleveland was about to punt the ball?
I hope that we clean house in the offseason, and I want April gone along with the rest of these bums.
The only reason anybody thinks April is any good, is because he has one of the best punters of all time, and he's had some very talented Return Men.
Nope not guessing, but nice try (Don't assume). I also said 10-15 range aswell. Now this week brought the stats down, but still doing ok. Moorman is 5th, Roscoe on kickoffs who didn't return the first couple games is now 16th in kickoffs (add the 120 yards from Leodis and they're in the top 10), Ryan Lindell is tied with in 8th for kicking FG (Team is tied at 9th), 15th in opponent FGs. 5th in Gross Punt leaders. Besides penalities, they're not the last for anything else. He has one average year and that's it? He had top 5 ST the previous years, and a bad year for him is an average year. The returners are swinging the ball around, not catching the ball, and choosing to act careless with the ball. At the very least he's best option among any of the Bills staff.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics

[Beastie Bills]

Nope not guessing, but nice try (Don't assume). I also said 10-15 range aswell. Now this week brought the stats down, but still doing ok. Moorman is 5th, Roscoe on kickoffs who didn't return the first couple games is now 16th in kickoffs (add the 120 yards from Leodis and they're in the top 10), Ryan Lindell is tied with in 8th for kicking FG (Team is tied at 9th), 15th in opponent FGs. 5th in Gross Punt leaders. Besides penalities, they're not the last for anything else. He has one average year and that's it? He had top 5 ST the previous years, and a bad year for him is an average year. The returners are swinging the ball around, not catching the ball, and choosing to act careless with the ball. At the very least he's best option among any of the Bills staff.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics
Ok, so you said:

(still top 10 in the return yardage...etc).

So I'm not sure where you got that from. So Brian Moorman is 5th in Average Punt distance, and Lindell is 8th in FG %. What does that have to do with Bobby April exactly? Did he say "Hey Ryan, go kick that ball between those uprights", or "Hey Brian, kick the ball really far". WOW! GREAT JOB COACH!

You're using individual stats to back up the argument that Bobby April's Special Teams Unit is in the top 10.

And I love how you ignored my comments about penalties, and burning a timeout with 0:02 left in the 3rd quarter because only one member of the Punt Return team was on the field.

[Syderick]

Ok, so you said:

(still top 10 in the return yardage...etc).

So I'm not sure where you got that from. So Brian Moorman is 5th in Average Punt distance, and Lindell is 8th in FG %. What does that have to do with Bobby April exactly? Did he say "Hey Ryan, go kick that ball between those uprights", or "Hey Brian, kick the ball really far". WOW! GREAT JOB COACH!

You're using individual stats to back up the argument that Bobby April's Special Teams Unit is in the top 10.

And I love how you ignored my comments about penalties, and burning a timeout with 0:02 left in the 3rd quarter because only one member of the Punt Return team was on the field.

WTF are you talking about? No sh *t Sherlocks, of course some of them are individual. Ryan Lindell, Roscoe Parrish, and Brian Moorman play on ST, i'm showing the stats compared to other ST players. April's there coach, his job to have the kicking teams prepared. If Brian & Ryan sucked, I bet you be blaming it on April. He's have bad year, I admit that but he's better then anybody else on staff. The 0:02 timeout was everyone's fault. I never ignored your comment about penalties. I agreed and said the Bills are last in that, so what you talking about? Right now the waterboy is better then Dick Jauron.

[Syderick]

If we keep Dick til the end, bring in a proven HC like Gruden or Shannahan or Cowher. Hell try going after good coordinators. In the mean time might aswell give someone else a chance til the season ends. Dick has lost the team and will be lucky to win another 2 games!