One of my favourite Rex Ryan quotes from his time coaching the Jets came when he was asked if he was intimidated by coaching against Bill Belichick. He responded by saying "I'm not going to kiss his rings". And there are three of them to kiss with a fourth possibly on its way in a couple of weeks.
There are many things to like about Ryan's hiring for Bills fans. First, here is what would have been the main reason not to hire him: The Bills challenges over the past two years have been on the offensive side of the ball. Without a franchise quarterback, the offence sputtered under Doug Marrone who, as a former offensive lineman in the NFL, was hired to help find a quarterback and, when they settled on EJ Manuel, to bring him and the Bills offence along. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz handled the defence brilliantly last season and most Bills fans would have agreed that the defence needed little or no tweaking going into 2015. But Ryan is a defensive coach and his arrival last week led to the departure of Schwartz only a few days later. With no obvious solution at quarterback, Ryan has hired former 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman to run the Bills offence. Roman's focus has been on a power running game - and that might suit the Bills personnel well if CJ Spiller returns but winning teams in the NFL are able to throw the ball effectively more now than ever. So, we'll see.
The press conference last Wednesday where Ryan was introduced was great to watch. Ryan has a certain swagger and, combined with his sense of humour and folksy charm, he will endear himself to the fan base easily. And, for the first time since the Bills hired former Rams coach Chuck Knox in 1978, Rex Ryan is a name - an experienced NFL head coach who has spent the last 6 years in New York. Other than Knox, Ralph Wilson's coaching hires, including Marv Levy, were either coordinators getting their first head coaching job or re-tread coaches who came cheap (like Levy was). Ryan brings a measure of credibility to the Bills who really needed it after Doug Marrone mysteriously "opted out" on New Year's Eve. But, as one of the WGR guys said last week, Ryan can have the most hilarious press conferences the Buffalo media has ever seen but if he can't find an NFL serviceable quarterback to lead the offence, he won't seem that funny after a few weeks.
So, after all the wild card machinations of the last two weeks of the NFL season, and with 10 of the 11 NFL playoff games in the books, we are left with the two top conference seeds: The Patriots and the Seahawks. This looks like a great match-up for the Superbowl. Yesterday's conference championship games were a study in contrast with one being a classic overtime thriller and the other not really competitive at all. Watching the Packers collapse yesterday, which included giving up an onside kick, I couldn't help wondering how their playoff run would have turned out had they been able to beat the Bills in week 15 and play the NFC Championship game at Lambeau instead of in Seattle.
Finally, I visited my friend and long-time colleague JS last week who has been knocked back by a medical issue. Get well soon. The Cowboys need you and so do the rest of us.
Monday, 19 January 2015
Monday, 5 January 2015
The Pegula Honeymoon is Over
Doug Marrone was apparently very upset with the Buffalo media and its apparent obsession with questioning his conservative approach on 4th down and probably other issues too. If he ends up coaching the Jets, he will find the New York media to be better behaved and much less likely to question his decisions.
Jerry Sullivan of the Buffalo News has his share of detractors (Marrone probably among them) for his decidedly negative tone over the years but I think that his journalism is good and right and presents readers with a valuable perspective. He called Ralph Wilson cheap - which he was. He also pointed out in a recent column that the honeymoon for the Pegulas is clearly over. When Kyle Orton resigned the morning after the Bills final game, it was understandable. After all, the Bills had to coax him out of a sort of semi-retirement to agree to be the "back-up" in 2014. But when news of Marrone's New Year's Eve "opt-out" reached me, it didn't sound like good news.
According to multiple reports, Marrone asked for a contract extension at some point in the first three days of last week and was turned down. This may have been a high stakes bluff game on the part of both Marrone and Pegula with Marrone sensing his market value had risen after having guided the team to its first winning season in 10 years and Pegula doubting that Marrone would really pull the plug if an extension was not granted. But the result is the antithesis of what many of us thought the Pegula regime would deliver to the Bills fan base. The quarterback retires and then the coach resigns. Perhaps both men would handle the negotiations differently were they to have a second chance but its done now and the Bills have no coach.
From Pegula's perspective, I understand his reluctance to consider a contract extension for Marrone. He is yet to hire - either permanently or on a "contract" basis - a football expert to advise him on the state of his $1.4 billion investment in a business where he is not an expert. Perhaps he should have moved sooner to do so but the man he apparently wanted, current ESPN analyst and former Bills GM, Bill Polian, turned him down after Marrone opted out. He may not have done so if the coach was coming back. Marrone was apparently concerned about Polian coming in to the organization with too much authority - authority which he wanted some of anyway. So, Marrone quit because Polian might be coming and Polian turned down a front office job because Marrone had left. What are we to think of this?
It's easy for me to say this but surely Pegula could have explained to Marrone that he needed a bit more time to review the team's operations before extending coaching contracts. He could have thrown him a bone of some kind - in private, of course. This could have been an assurance that his job was safe and that he would have more authority over personnel decisions - whatever - even if the promises were made without knowing if they would be kept. Pegula has a public relations disaster on his hands now with a President and a GM who are both fearful of losing their jobs after an analysis by the owner's appointed expert. But there is no expert in place now. And the top coaching candidates are all going through the interview process this week with the list of teams looking to hire. Any candidate for the Bills job who may receive other offers will have to consider that the team has potential lame ducks in the front office, pending Pegula's review of operations. Other offers will not come with that level of uncertainty.
Pegula has said nothing publicly and I think its time that he does. Marrone has made no statement either but he's gone and it really doesn't matter. Pegula built a business empire and a personal fortune. Surely, he can take steps to calm the fan base and bring stability to the front office, either by giving the President and the GM a vote of confidence or by cleaning house. He won't solve this one by pumping water deep underground. He needs to take charge, take action and do it fast.
Jerry Sullivan of the Buffalo News has his share of detractors (Marrone probably among them) for his decidedly negative tone over the years but I think that his journalism is good and right and presents readers with a valuable perspective. He called Ralph Wilson cheap - which he was. He also pointed out in a recent column that the honeymoon for the Pegulas is clearly over. When Kyle Orton resigned the morning after the Bills final game, it was understandable. After all, the Bills had to coax him out of a sort of semi-retirement to agree to be the "back-up" in 2014. But when news of Marrone's New Year's Eve "opt-out" reached me, it didn't sound like good news.
According to multiple reports, Marrone asked for a contract extension at some point in the first three days of last week and was turned down. This may have been a high stakes bluff game on the part of both Marrone and Pegula with Marrone sensing his market value had risen after having guided the team to its first winning season in 10 years and Pegula doubting that Marrone would really pull the plug if an extension was not granted. But the result is the antithesis of what many of us thought the Pegula regime would deliver to the Bills fan base. The quarterback retires and then the coach resigns. Perhaps both men would handle the negotiations differently were they to have a second chance but its done now and the Bills have no coach.
From Pegula's perspective, I understand his reluctance to consider a contract extension for Marrone. He is yet to hire - either permanently or on a "contract" basis - a football expert to advise him on the state of his $1.4 billion investment in a business where he is not an expert. Perhaps he should have moved sooner to do so but the man he apparently wanted, current ESPN analyst and former Bills GM, Bill Polian, turned him down after Marrone opted out. He may not have done so if the coach was coming back. Marrone was apparently concerned about Polian coming in to the organization with too much authority - authority which he wanted some of anyway. So, Marrone quit because Polian might be coming and Polian turned down a front office job because Marrone had left. What are we to think of this?
It's easy for me to say this but surely Pegula could have explained to Marrone that he needed a bit more time to review the team's operations before extending coaching contracts. He could have thrown him a bone of some kind - in private, of course. This could have been an assurance that his job was safe and that he would have more authority over personnel decisions - whatever - even if the promises were made without knowing if they would be kept. Pegula has a public relations disaster on his hands now with a President and a GM who are both fearful of losing their jobs after an analysis by the owner's appointed expert. But there is no expert in place now. And the top coaching candidates are all going through the interview process this week with the list of teams looking to hire. Any candidate for the Bills job who may receive other offers will have to consider that the team has potential lame ducks in the front office, pending Pegula's review of operations. Other offers will not come with that level of uncertainty.
Pegula has said nothing publicly and I think its time that he does. Marrone has made no statement either but he's gone and it really doesn't matter. Pegula built a business empire and a personal fortune. Surely, he can take steps to calm the fan base and bring stability to the front office, either by giving the President and the GM a vote of confidence or by cleaning house. He won't solve this one by pumping water deep underground. He needs to take charge, take action and do it fast.
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