The last decade of this salary cap era NFL has taught us that a team that functions well in all aspects is far more important than one superstar player, be it the most important position player - QB. Those who think replace one player can get us to the superbowl now is living in dreams.
Those who know me from the other boards may remember the day when I was vocal when Donahoe came to the Bills that I have maintained that the Steelers made the right choice to stay with Cowher instead of TD. Look where are the Steelers now. It's hard to argue.
But my point is that Steelers did not get to where they are overnight. When Donahoe was fired, The Steelers were at their lowest point in Cowher's tenure. Since then they got someone who share Cowher's vision as GM and it took them 5 drafts to set the foundation of this 15-1 team. Mind you almost no 1st 2nd round busts in these 5 years and only a handful of FA like Hartings, Farrior, and Duce. A lucky find of big Ben this year provides a steady - not super - steering at QB and they took off, not even injury can slow them down. This is a young team and has a great future.
Over the year, good or bad, Cowher has lost coaches. If there is one thing that is constant, it is himself. And that is precisely Bills' problem in my opinion. Donahoe got the wrong coach in GW to begin with, and Mularkey just started his first year, and we all expected him to win right away, even superbowl, all just by replace Bledsoe with Losman or whoever out there no other team wants?
It takes a good coach several years to build a team that fit his philosophy. And it requires a cooperating GM. We see it in NE, we see it in Pitt. I fully expect Mularkey to put more of his stamp on this team next year. Donahoe, humbled by the firing from Pittsburgh, and humbled again by Cowher last sunday, just might realise this and work with Mularkey instead of calling shots signing FA left and right, or trading out valuable picks in the draft, hoping for a quick turn around. I don't know about you guys but I see more problems on the Bills O-Line, D-line, and Linebackers and secondary where few of our own draft picks can beat out the aging FAs we signed.
Those who know me from the other boards may remember the day when I was vocal when Donahoe came to the Bills that I have maintained that the Steelers made the right choice to stay with Cowher instead of TD. Look where are the Steelers now. It's hard to argue.
But my point is that Steelers did not get to where they are overnight. When Donahoe was fired, The Steelers were at their lowest point in Cowher's tenure. Since then they got someone who share Cowher's vision as GM and it took them 5 drafts to set the foundation of this 15-1 team. Mind you almost no 1st 2nd round busts in these 5 years and only a handful of FA like Hartings, Farrior, and Duce. A lucky find of big Ben this year provides a steady - not super - steering at QB and they took off, not even injury can slow them down. This is a young team and has a great future.
Over the year, good or bad, Cowher has lost coaches. If there is one thing that is constant, it is himself. And that is precisely Bills' problem in my opinion. Donahoe got the wrong coach in GW to begin with, and Mularkey just started his first year, and we all expected him to win right away, even superbowl, all just by replace Bledsoe with Losman or whoever out there no other team wants?
It takes a good coach several years to build a team that fit his philosophy. And it requires a cooperating GM. We see it in NE, we see it in Pitt. I fully expect Mularkey to put more of his stamp on this team next year. Donahoe, humbled by the firing from Pittsburgh, and humbled again by Cowher last sunday, just might realise this and work with Mularkey instead of calling shots signing FA left and right, or trading out valuable picks in the draft, hoping for a quick turn around. I don't know about you guys but I see more problems on the Bills O-Line, D-line, and Linebackers and secondary where few of our own draft picks can beat out the aging FAs we signed.
Comment