Willing to Give Marrone a Chance

[mjt328]

I'm usually just as critical of the moves the Bills make as anyone. And I'm not saying this move gets me excited about the future of Buffalo Bills football again. But let's at least give the guy a chance before throwing him to the wolves.

Let's be real...

I think we ALL would have loved a veteran coach with a strong winning background. Cowher, Schottenheimer, Gruden, etc.
But NONE of these guys have been reported as interviewing for an NFL job for several years now, and NONE of these guys have expressed any interest (outside of Internet speculation) in returning to the NFL as a coach. If Gruden was really a candidate, every team with an opening would have gone after him. But a week after the end of the regular season, he hasn't sat down with even one team. That tells me that he isn't interested in leaving the announcing booth.


So what does that leave us?

Andy Reid interviewed with one team and never left. Chip Kelly flirted with two teams and decided to go back to Oregon.


Lovie Smith probably would have been my first choice out of the names left. But to be honest, it's not like we passed up someone with a spectacular background.
Sure, Smith is over .500 and has gotten his team in the playoffs roughly half of the seasons he's coached. He showed up in one Super Bowl with Rex Grossman as quarterback.
But wouldn't that be typical of the Bills? Settling for a coach that is good, but not great? Someone good at coaching defense, but not offense? Someone who has a reputation for failing to beat teams with a winning record? Someone who got fired for falling short too many times with a pretty talented team?


I don't pretend to know a lot about Marrone. I don't watch much Syracuse football.
But I do know that it's tough to judge a college coach based strictly on record. Unlike the 32 NFL teams who have the same salary cap and same pool of players to choose from, all NCAA college teams are not on the same playing field. They don't have the same resources or the same ability to recruit top high school talent.
A 25-25 record may suck for a big school like USC, LSU or Alabama. But for a little school like Syracuse, that record might not be so bad.


I'm not saying to make your Super Bowl reservations.
But let's wait to see if he sucks, before yelling and screaming that he sucks.

[trapezeus]

it'll be interesting to see what the staff looks like. see if the guy is willing to give up some control to a stud DC without feeling threatened.

[Historian]

wash...rinse...repeat...

[THE END OF ALL DAYS]

I'm on board.... Nothing to loose at this point. Might as well do the excited for the future thing.. So far that's the best we can do as bills fans this time of year.

[EDS]

I want to like Marrone too, but I would like him alot more if the decision to hire him was made by a different front office. Unfortunately, Brandon, Nix and Whaley just do not strike me as the right guys to be making such important decisions.

[THE END OF ALL DAYS]

just read this on SI:

But on Sunday, the Browns moved on from Kelly in their coaching search after he reportedly expressed doubts (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013/football/nfl/wires/01/06/2020.ap.fbn.browns.kelly.6th.ld.writethru.1151/index.html) about jumping from college to the NFL. In waiting for Kelly, the Browns missed out on the opportunity to hire Marrone, who was reportedly high on their list of candidates.

[elltrain22]

I'm definetely going to give Marrone a chance. I was really hoping for Kelly, but Marrone is a pretty decent consolation. Whiz, Lovie, and any other coach that got fired last year (w/ the exception of Reid) was a nightmare idea from the start. I think what Marrone did at Syracuse has alot to be desired. Another thing, his track record suggests, that where ever he goes, he leaves a trail of success. I acutally am very optimistic about our chances next year. Especially, if we get help at LB'er & WR, we resign Byrd & Levitre, and of course, solve our QB issue.

[mjt328]

wash...rinse...repeat...

2-3 years from now, we may look back and realize this was a terrible hire.

But you have to admit, this is a completely different direction for our franchise.

- - - Updated - - -


it'll be interesting to see what the staff looks like. see if the guy is willing to give up some control to a stud DC without feeling threatened.

I agree.

[Bill Cody]

wash...rinse...repeat...

lol The first time you ever heard the guy's name was last week but you know he's a failure

[Saratoga Slim]

just read this on SI:

But on Sunday, the Browns moved on from Kelly in their coaching search after he reportedly expressed doubts (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013/football/nfl/wires/01/06/2020.ap.fbn.browns.kelly.6th.ld.writethru.1151/index.html) about jumping from college to the NFL. In waiting for Kelly, the Browns missed out on the opportunity to hire Marrone, who was reportedly high on their list of candidates.

Browns weren't the only ones, he was a pretty hot comodity: http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/05/syracuses-marrone-to-interview-with-chargers-eagles/

As a Syracuse fan, I never saw this coming. Was fairly happy with the job he's done in turning things around, but surprised nonetheless.

[jimmifli]

lol The first time you ever heard the guy's name was last week but you know he's a failure
No. It's that we hired a guy that the first time we heard he was even being considered was a week before he was hired.

[justasportsfan]

wash...rinse...repeat...

what did they do that was the same?

They hired a coach who is reported to have accountability unlike Jauron and Chan.
They hired a coach who isn't laid back.
They hired young fresh blood with fresh new ideas who seems in tune to how the game haes evolved..


most of all They hired a coach who was coveted by other teams this time and not some coach that nobody wanted to hire ala , GW, MM, DJ ,CG

who was your choice ?

[Fletch]

I'm not saying to make your Super Bowl reservations.
But let's wait to see if he sucks, before yelling and screaming that he sucks.

OR, send the message now that you're sick and tired of the third-rate manner in which your team is run and vote with your wallet and let them know that right now, not after they steal your money from you and compound over a decade's worth of frustration.

Then again, give the marketing wing of the team what they want, but why should you or anyone else that gives them another pass on this nonsense expect but well, just what we've gotten here.


Lovie Smith probably would have been my first choice out of the names left. But to be honest, it's not like we passed up someone with a spectacular background.
Sure, Smith is over .500 and has gotten his team in the playoffs roughly half of the seasons he's coached. He showed up in one Super Bowl with Rex Grossman as quarterback.
But wouldn't that be typical of the Bills? Settling for a coach that is good, but not great? Someone good at coaching defense, but not offense? Someone who has a reputation for failing to beat teams with a winning record? Someone who got fired for falling short too many times with a pretty talented team?

Smith had little more to work with in Chicago than the Bills have had during the same time. He's not had one receiver the likes of Johnson, Evans, TO, or Moulds ever except for this season, and that WR had a record year both team and personal, and the Bears, in arguably the toughest division in football, went 10-6 losing games only to playoff teams. He also never had a RB the caliber of Jackson.

They had an equal record to four playoff teams this year but were just in the wrong division.

He took the Bears to the playoffs three times, to the Super Bowl once, was .500 in the playoffs, and he did it w/ QBs Orton, Grossman, and Cutler, no different than Losman, Edwards, and Fitzpatrick.

But here's the bottom line, if the Bills right now were 81-63 over the last nine years with the crap we've had for QBs, had made the playoffs three times and been in the Super Bowl once, no one would be calling for his head, they would be calling for the front office to get a QB here.

In contrast w/ Marrone, we have no idea what his actual contributions were to the success of the Saints since Payton did the job that most OC's do, and in fact, some teams in the past have had their HC act as the OC or DC and not even had a coordinator on that side, so it would seem that his role was fully expendable those three seasons at worst, at best a complete mystery as to what his actual contributions to winning were since it was not actually running the offense as that was done by Payton.

Marrone has taken a team in a second-rate conference and gone .500 with it. Yes, going 8-5 in his final season, but also having gone 8-5 three seasons ago only to then have slipped back down to 5-7, hardly a renaissance.

If he had stayed and had a new QB next season, does anyone really think he'd have posted another winning season in the ACC? To me the notion is absurd.

We can cut him all the slack that we want and "wait and see," but the 99% reality here is that this was primarily done as a marketing move by a marketer/bean-counter type to draw fans from CNY and that at the end of two more seasons everyone here will realize it.

Meanwhile, the team still has major holes with which it won't win games in the NFL. The secondary is weak with not depth, the linebacking corps is almost non-existent and Barnett, the team's only reliable LB will be 32 next season and is getting long in the tooth. There's no depth at WR or TE, and now the entire ball of wax will fall on Spiller with no backup RB.

Of course the elephant sitting in the tea cup is the lack of a QB, a decent backup QB, and a front office that hasn't understood that you even need a QB.

Anyway, how this is a change-up for the team as everyone is saying as if saying it often enough makes it true, should raise everyone's eyebrows.

[OLDSRIP]

No. It's that we hired a guy that the first time we heard he was even being considered was a week before he was hired.

I don't get what you are saying. Are the Bills supposed to publicly let everyone know what they were thinking ahead of time? Or we're they supposed to call you privately?
Making your candidates public information ahead of time would hurt any advantage they may have had. Especially when 6 other teams are also hiring.

[kishoph]

Lovie Smith probably would have been my first choice out of the names left. But to be honest, it's not like we passed up someone with a spectacular background.


I don't pretend to know a lot about Marrone. I don't watch much Syracuse football.
But I do know that it's tough to judge a college coach based strictly on record. Unlike the 32 NFL teams who have the same salary cap and same pool of players to choose from, all NCAA college teams are not on the same playing field. They don't have the same resources or the same ability to recruit top high school talent.
A 25-25 record may suck for a big school like USC, LSU or Alabama. But for a little school like Syracuse, that record might not be so bad.


I would of been happy with Lovie, but wouldn't that have been pretty much the "same old, same old" that so many complain about, in hiring a retread coach that's out of a job.

In college, you play with the kids that want to come to your school, you can't go out and pay to get the nations best recruits and honestly how many top high school players were looking to go to Syracuse after Greg Robinson destroyed the program ?

[bf1]

I'd rather take a chance on someone new rather than a retread.

[YardRat]

In college, you play with the kids that want to come to your school, you can't go out and pay to get the nations best recruits and honestly how many top high school players were looking to go to Syracuse after Greg Robinson destroyed the program ?

Well, that's certainly debatable, but...if the choices came down to Marrone or C.Kelly, I would've tagged Marrone every time. Just haven't really liked Kelly from the get-go, so if we're going the college route we may have gotten the best option available.

[Bill Cody]

No. It's that we hired a guy that the first time we heard he was even being considered was a week before he was hired.

This has to be one of the dumbest posts I've ever read. We only fired Gailey on December 31st and we hired Marrone exactly a week later. The only way you could have heard marrone's name discussed MORE than a week ago is if the Bills have been talking up candidates publicly for a job that wasn't even open. Is that what you're saying they should have done?

[Generalissimus Gibby]

This coming season is a very brutal schedule if he finds a way to match this year's win total I won't call for his head. I will give him until the middle of the 2014 schedule before I brand him a failure.

[Bill Cody]

This coming season is a very brutal schedule if he finds a way to match this year's win total I won't call for his head. I will give him until the middle of the 2014 schedule before I brand him a failure.

mid 2014? lol That's quite a turnaround from YESTERDAY.
well when Lovie is in the playoffs next year and the year after and you are clamoring for Moron to be fired then you can tell me then how much you hate Lovie Smith.

I'm happy that some of you are so eagerly buying your ticket to the failboat:

Like Chan Gailey was ready? Like Mularkey was ready? Like Manboobs was ready? This is gonna be a long season.

[Dude]

This coming season is a very brutal schedule if he finds a way to match this year's win total I won't call for his head. I will give him until the middle of the 2014 schedule before I brand him a failure.That's awfully big of you. I'm sure he'll be relieved to hear that.

[trapezeus]

i think it will be interesting to see where the 7 teams that decided to make coaches stand next to each other next year by say week 8. Just to get a guage on how quickly the coaches got their culture in and made their changes.

marrone's tenure essentially starts the second we make our QB selections for next year. if they saddle him with fitz and a 5th round pick, they literally will have changed nothing.

[Bert102176]

I want to like Marrone too, but I would like him alot more if the decision to hire him was made by a different front office. Unfortunately, Brandon, Nix and Whaley just do not strike me as the right guys to be making such important decisions.

Other team were interested in him being their coach as well so that makes me feel better about him and to viable coaches also rave about him not just one like Cowher did for Gailey and that was only cause the Bills were pestering him to be the coach and he wanted us to take Gaily and leave him alone the a-hole Cowher is

[mjt328]

In college, you play with the kids that want to come to your school, you can't go out and pay to get the nations best recruits and honestly how many top high school players were looking to go to Syracuse after Greg Robinson destroyed the program ?

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I can't get too disappointed about a 25-25 record in college.

In college, there is no draft or free agency. Schools can't (...well at least they aren't supposed to) throw money to attract the top recruits. The worst programs don't automatically get the first "pick" of the top high school recruits. Even if Marrone is great at recognizing talent, he still has to convince those kids that Syracuse is the best option for their future. That's a really tough sell.

[better days]

just read this on SI:

But on Sunday, the Browns moved on from Kelly in their coaching search after he reportedly expressed doubts (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013/football/nfl/wires/01/06/2020.ap.fbn.browns.kelly.6th.ld.writethru.1151/index.html) about jumping from college to the NFL. In waiting for Kelly, the Browns missed out on the opportunity to hire Marrone, who was reportedly high on their list of candidates.

So, in other words, THE SAME OLD BROWNS.