Lost in their journalism education was a definition of irony. Or hubris. Probably both.
A wall of text that basically boils down to "Bill thought it was the right move, so it's the right move". Well, let me present you the hypothesis that Bill resorted to some old pals to fill holes he otherwise wouldn't have qualified people to occupy because of the crazy amount of brain drain the organization has gone through, and having Matt Patricia and Joe Judge taking care of the offense for a 2nd year QB is really far from the scenario he wanted, but it was the best he could come up with in these circumstances. Doesn't that sound a lot more plausible than believing those two are as qualified to coach on that side of the ball as anyone else because "coaching is coaching" or something?
Exactly. It is different enough from the NFL norm to raise eyebrows. That doesn't automatically mean it is bad, but we cannot know how well it will work until we see it. Plenty of reason for concern but none for panic.
QFT. Go through the Game Goat threads from all the losses dating back to 2012. I bet you Josh is listed in damn near every one.
Yeah the "arrogance" and "hubris" line is so overtired. I mean, I'm sure BB has some arrogance to him. So did Parcells. And Gibbs. And Shanahan. And Lombardi. And Reid. And Payton. And McVeigh - they all think their way is the best way for them to do business, because if they didn't think it was the best way, they'd change into a different way, because they'd think that THAT way was the best way - which they'd then be doing.
Well guys can definitely be experts at one position compared to another. It's like coaching big men in basketball - yeah you have to know what the guards are doing, so you need to know BASKETBALL, but the specific requirements of bigs are a little different than for guards.
The fact that the alternative to having Judge and Patricia could be plugging in inexperienced guys Bill doesn't believe to be ready to carry that burden yet just means the solution he came up with is the best he could conceive given the circumstances and not necessarily a good one.
I think this is way off.
I’m not sure this is true. While there is griping about nepotism, we are not hearing too much about Matt Groh for instance - despite robust criticism of the draft, I haven’t seen much attributing the “reaches” to the fact that personnel is overseen by Al’s boy.
You're a better person than me then, to be able to avoid the stations Felger has been able to poison.
Counterpoint: this is a wall of text making complaints because of...reasons!
I've said explicitly I wouldn't mind them being positional coaches as long as they had an actual or de facto OC with experience both in the system and on that side of the ball. But it's not really the case, is it? But if you're right and Bill Belichick specifically wanted to be in this situation, i.e. no actual OC and Matt Patricia and Joe Judge for all intents and purposes being in charge of the offense, then I'd say your scenario is more indicative of him having lost his fastball. If this is what he willingly built towards, I wholeheartedly question his judgement. I don't think that's what happened, so I still trust Bill.
An article by Jim McBride in the Boston Globe on May 16 made the claim that Steve called the plays and Jerod ran defensive team meetings. I had never seen or heard anything that clear before reading that. And whether it's true is unknown.
This division of duties has more or less become observational fact among beat reporters.
Things did need to change, because the guys they had left. Patricia left after 2017 and then Flores left after 2018; keeping them wasn't really an option. They did keep McDaniels as long as humanly possible but now he's gone, too. So then it becomes a question of whether you seek an established OC outside the org or build from guys who know the system. But doing what they had been doing was not on the table.
I think this is fair to an extent but unfair in other ways. McDaniels served as the QB coach in addition to the OC, so having a guy in that "stepping stone" QB coach role wasn't on the table, nor apparently was promoting from within to that position to prevent a guy from leaving. So that made it somewhat hard to build a bench. But beyond that, I think a lot of "OCs in waiting" just got tired of waiting for Josh to take another gig. Aside from Schuplinski, you had Chad O'Shea, Brian Daboll, and Jeff Fisch, who all might have / would have been OC candidates had the timing been different, but they got sick of waiting and got promotions elsewhere.
That's fair on guys not being willing to wait, especially after McDaniels turned down the Colts gig in 2017
I mean, that's mostly fair. I'd push back on the notion that Bill specifically wanted to be in this situation. I'm sure he would have loved to have kept Josh as OC for perpetuity. Had Josh stayed, I imagine Bricillo, Lombardi, and Hardegree all probably would have stayed as well. But the fact that they blocked Caley from leaving, but by all reporting were fine with the other three moving on, leads me to believe Bill thinks Judge and Patricia are simply better coaches than the three that left.
I 100% agree with this entire post. I had the exact same thoughts watching the second half.
The defense has been a paper tiger dating back to 2019. Shutout? No. The Bills went 23 straight drives without punting against the Pats. They played ok after the first 3 drives. But with this offense, that was enough for it to already be ballgame.
You can’t cherry pick games against elite offenses. Overall the unit is good, and it’s tough for them to win games on their own when the offense is on the field for 3-6 plays per drive. That defense was competitive last night, nothing really came easy for Buffalo, they had to earn it. The offense was…not competitive. The offense makes the defense look worse at times, and I’m sure the mental aspect of knowing the offense can’t do shit becomes a grind as well.
Absolutely agree with this. And it probably wouldn't have mattered, but honestly, why try an onsides kick if you're not going to use your three timeouts instead of letting the Bills run out the last two minutes of the game? Either you're competing until the final whistle or you're not.
Fully, FULLY agree that the offense makes the defense look worse at times.
What is the take? That the defense is bad and worth firing a coach over? That Steve isn’t working out? I’d say both of those are controversial, yes.
Rebuilding takes time. It can be accelerated with an elite QB.
The take is that the defense looks better on paper when you average together the season but does not have enough elite talent to slow down good offenses. I admit that I have no idea if any of this falls on Steve. But it does fall on BB the GM.
I personally think the OL is one of the worst units in the league, and it is complemented by a below mediocre set of skill (non-RB) position players. I know people will disagree; fine. I am admittedly not using DVOA or other stats when making that judgment. So not even a Herbert is going to help them all that much. They're asking a lot of a 2nd year QB, IMO.
It is essential that he significantly upgrades the coaching staff next year. He's 70 now, and while I don't think that's an age where anybody needs to be put out to pasture, it is not uncommon at that point of life to have some diminishment in energy, in terms of stamina, both physical and cognitive. I think any coach of that age needs to be surrounded by a very good staff. He is not. If he's not willing to make a few changes, none of which would or should undermine his ultimate veto power/last word on football decisions, then I agree. Kraft may very well need to have a hard conversation with him. I reject the notion that failure as a head coach equates to not being a valuable assistant, but both Patricia and Judge should have been baby stepped into becoming offensive coaches. Not handed the reigns in year one.
