Let me preface this by saying: I have not seen this angle discussed anywhere--hardly surprising considering the "doom and gloom" attitude prevalent in most Bills fans, and the local media's insistence on catering to that crowd...
Now, for the first time since Marchibroda left Buffalo to be the head coach in Indianapolis--one of our coordinators left for a promotion to be a head coach. To me, that statistic is maybe more mind boggling than the fact that Buffalo has missed the playoffs for 14 straight years. And to add to that--look at it from this perspective:
In the years between Ralph firing Bill Polian, and Ralph ceding control of the organization to Russ Brandon, the Bills had ZERO coordinators leave Buffalo to become head coaches.
In the one year since Doug Whaley and Russ Brandon took over control of running the Buffalo Bills, they were able to hire a defensive coordinator with enough football acumen to leave the Buffalo Bills and land a head coaching job in the NFL.
That is a good thing. Is it sad to see such a great coach leave? Absolutely. But it also starts to take some of organizational tarnish away from the last 2 decades of Bills football. And if you need more proof that it's not business as usual at One Bills Drive, consider the following:
The 2 defensive coordinators who are being rumored to be in line to replace Pettine (Wade Phillips and Greg Williams) have both been previously FIRED by the Buffalo Bills. If those two facts taken together don't show that Ralph Wilson is truly no longer running this team, I don't know what does.
Now listen, the fact that the Bills haven't made the playoffs in 14 years can be attributed to a lot of different things--qb play is obviously the one that Bills fans can hang their hat on. But a stretch of losing that long comes down to organizational malaise--and the fact that in the first year of a new regime in the front office has yielded a coaching staff that was actually desired by another team, and now we're lining up high profile coordinators that want to be here--means that there truly is new top-down control in Buffalo.
Is EJ the man? Will we ever be able to stop the run? Can Marrone make good decisions on game day?
Those are all legitimate questions.
But maybe, for the first time since Polian was in control of this team, we have men at the top of the organization that we can trust to ANSWER those questions for us--not a meddling owner who scares away the best talent in football.
Now, for the first time since Marchibroda left Buffalo to be the head coach in Indianapolis--one of our coordinators left for a promotion to be a head coach. To me, that statistic is maybe more mind boggling than the fact that Buffalo has missed the playoffs for 14 straight years. And to add to that--look at it from this perspective:
In the years between Ralph firing Bill Polian, and Ralph ceding control of the organization to Russ Brandon, the Bills had ZERO coordinators leave Buffalo to become head coaches.
In the one year since Doug Whaley and Russ Brandon took over control of running the Buffalo Bills, they were able to hire a defensive coordinator with enough football acumen to leave the Buffalo Bills and land a head coaching job in the NFL.
That is a good thing. Is it sad to see such a great coach leave? Absolutely. But it also starts to take some of organizational tarnish away from the last 2 decades of Bills football. And if you need more proof that it's not business as usual at One Bills Drive, consider the following:
The 2 defensive coordinators who are being rumored to be in line to replace Pettine (Wade Phillips and Greg Williams) have both been previously FIRED by the Buffalo Bills. If those two facts taken together don't show that Ralph Wilson is truly no longer running this team, I don't know what does.
Now listen, the fact that the Bills haven't made the playoffs in 14 years can be attributed to a lot of different things--qb play is obviously the one that Bills fans can hang their hat on. But a stretch of losing that long comes down to organizational malaise--and the fact that in the first year of a new regime in the front office has yielded a coaching staff that was actually desired by another team, and now we're lining up high profile coordinators that want to be here--means that there truly is new top-down control in Buffalo.
Is EJ the man? Will we ever be able to stop the run? Can Marrone make good decisions on game day?
Those are all legitimate questions.
But maybe, for the first time since Polian was in control of this team, we have men at the top of the organization that we can trust to ANSWER those questions for us--not a meddling owner who scares away the best talent in football.
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