Buffalo Bills enter 2009 season in total disarray
Buffalo Bills enter 2009 season in total disarray
The Detroit Lions are the butt of a lot of jokes in the NFL and the Oakland Raiders are in equally sad shape with their last winning season in 2002. But no team enters the 2009 season a bigger mess than the Buffalo Bills. With their season win total mark set at 7½, it would seem to be easy money to bet the Under and then sit back and enjoy Buffalo's 16-game ride into the deep, dark cellar otherwise known as the AFC East.
Ralph Wilson deserves better than this.
The NFL enshrined the Buffalo Bills owner into the Hall of Fame on Aug. 8, marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Bills and the American Football League. This is a team steeped in tradition, but now the franchise is in disarray, playing one “home” game a year in Toronto and giving the impression they’ll make a run for the border after the 90-year-old Wilson leaves this world for the next.
Perhaps that’s just my cynical take on the situation. But here’s the reality on the ground: The Bills fired offensive co-ordinator Turk Schonert on Friday and replaced him with QB coach Alex Van Pelt. The Bills offense ranked No. 24 in the league in terms of efficiency last year, Schonert’s first year as a co-ordinator in the NFL. He won’t get a second year with the Bills after the starting unit failed to score a touchdown in the preseason using their new no-huddle offense.
Buffalo players (including QB Trent Edwards) have supported the change and expressed support for Van Pelt. This could yet prove to be the correct move for the Bills, but the offense is starting almost from scratch going into Monday night’s road tilt with the New England Patriots (7:00 p.m. Eastern, ESPN). And running back Dominic Rhodes was released on Saturday after signing a two-year contract in the offseason – a curious move given that Marshawn Lynch is suspended for the first three games on misdemeanor weapons charges.
But wait, there’s more. Left tackle Langston Walker was cut on Tuesday, prompting the return of guard Kirk Chambers, who was originally cut on Saturday. He’ll back up Demetrius Bell, the new starter at left tackle protecting Edwards’ blind side. Bell is shifting over from right tackle and has never played a game in the NFL. He was a seventh-round draft pick in 2008 after playing three years for the Northwestern State Demons of the FCS Southland Conference. This takes a lot of the steam out of the Terrell Owens signing and makes the Bills shaky candidates to surpass their posted total of 7.5 wins after going 7-9 SU and ATS last year.
The Bills weren’t the first team to hit the panic button going into the regular season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired offensive co-ordinator Jeff Jagodzinski last Thursday; his replacement, former QB coach Greg Olson, at least has held that position before with the Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams, albeit with little success. And the Kansas City Chiefs dumped offensive coordinator Chan Gailey on Aug. 31, with new head coach Todd Haley assuming the play-calling duties.
The Chiefs (with a total of six wins) aren’t likely to miss a beat. Haley was the offensive co-ordinator for the Arizona Cardinals last year and was expected to fire Gailey at some point. But the Buccaneers (6.5 wins) are in a curious spot in Raheem Morris’ first year at the helm. The former defensive backs coach was effusive with his praise for first-round draft pick Josh Freeman, but eventually settled on Byron Leftwich as his starting quarterback and traded Luke McCown to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Again, these moves could all pan out eventually; Jagodzinski hasn’t generated a lot of admiration from players or football pundits. But undoing the six months of work “Jags” put into the offense will take some time.
Curious and curiouser. However, if you want to talk front-office mayhem, we have to talk about the Oakland Raiders. You knew this was going to be another crazy year when head coach Tom Cable was accused of punching defensive assistant Randy Hanson in the jaw during an Aug. 5 team meeting. The story from “reliable sources” is that Cable pushed Hanson out of his chair, sending him jaw-first into a cabinet.
At least the players have taken it in good humor, chanting “Cable, Bumaye!” in warm-ups after the incident in reference to the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman fight in Zaire. Meanwhile, the Raiders cut QB Jeff Garcia before he played a single game for them. Then they traded a first-round draft pick in 2011 to the New England Patriots on Sunday for five-time Pro Bowl DE Richard Seymour, but he had yet to report to the team as of Tuesday night. The betting odds have a total of 5.5 wins up on the board for the Raiders this year. Seymour’s reluctance to report speaks volumes about Oakland’s chances of going over.
The Detroit Lions are the butt of a lot of jokes in the NFL and the Oakland Raiders are in equally sad shape with their last winning season in 2002. But no team enters the 2009 season a bigger mess than the Buffalo Bills. With their season win total mark set at 7½, it would seem to be easy money to bet the Under and then sit back and enjoy Buffalo's 16-game ride into the deep, dark cellar otherwise known as the AFC East.
Ralph Wilson deserves better than this.
The NFL enshrined the Buffalo Bills owner into the Hall of Fame on Aug. 8, marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Bills and the American Football League. This is a team steeped in tradition, but now the franchise is in disarray, playing one “home” game a year in Toronto and giving the impression they’ll make a run for the border after the 90-year-old Wilson leaves this world for the next.
Perhaps that’s just my cynical take on the situation. But here’s the reality on the ground: The Bills fired offensive co-ordinator Turk Schonert on Friday and replaced him with QB coach Alex Van Pelt. The Bills offense ranked No. 24 in the league in terms of efficiency last year, Schonert’s first year as a co-ordinator in the NFL. He won’t get a second year with the Bills after the starting unit failed to score a touchdown in the preseason using their new no-huddle offense.
Buffalo players (including QB Trent Edwards) have supported the change and expressed support for Van Pelt. This could yet prove to be the correct move for the Bills, but the offense is starting almost from scratch going into Monday night’s road tilt with the New England Patriots (7:00 p.m. Eastern, ESPN). And running back Dominic Rhodes was released on Saturday after signing a two-year contract in the offseason – a curious move given that Marshawn Lynch is suspended for the first three games on misdemeanor weapons charges.
But wait, there’s more. Left tackle Langston Walker was cut on Tuesday, prompting the return of guard Kirk Chambers, who was originally cut on Saturday. He’ll back up Demetrius Bell, the new starter at left tackle protecting Edwards’ blind side. Bell is shifting over from right tackle and has never played a game in the NFL. He was a seventh-round draft pick in 2008 after playing three years for the Northwestern State Demons of the FCS Southland Conference. This takes a lot of the steam out of the Terrell Owens signing and makes the Bills shaky candidates to surpass their posted total of 7.5 wins after going 7-9 SU and ATS last year.
The Bills weren’t the first team to hit the panic button going into the regular season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired offensive co-ordinator Jeff Jagodzinski last Thursday; his replacement, former QB coach Greg Olson, at least has held that position before with the Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams, albeit with little success. And the Kansas City Chiefs dumped offensive coordinator Chan Gailey on Aug. 31, with new head coach Todd Haley assuming the play-calling duties.
The Chiefs (with a total of six wins) aren’t likely to miss a beat. Haley was the offensive co-ordinator for the Arizona Cardinals last year and was expected to fire Gailey at some point. But the Buccaneers (6.5 wins) are in a curious spot in Raheem Morris’ first year at the helm. The former defensive backs coach was effusive with his praise for first-round draft pick Josh Freeman, but eventually settled on Byron Leftwich as his starting quarterback and traded Luke McCown to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Again, these moves could all pan out eventually; Jagodzinski hasn’t generated a lot of admiration from players or football pundits. But undoing the six months of work “Jags” put into the offense will take some time.
Curious and curiouser. However, if you want to talk front-office mayhem, we have to talk about the Oakland Raiders. You knew this was going to be another crazy year when head coach Tom Cable was accused of punching defensive assistant Randy Hanson in the jaw during an Aug. 5 team meeting. The story from “reliable sources” is that Cable pushed Hanson out of his chair, sending him jaw-first into a cabinet.
At least the players have taken it in good humor, chanting “Cable, Bumaye!” in warm-ups after the incident in reference to the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman fight in Zaire. Meanwhile, the Raiders cut QB Jeff Garcia before he played a single game for them. Then they traded a first-round draft pick in 2011 to the New England Patriots on Sunday for five-time Pro Bowl DE Richard Seymour, but he had yet to report to the team as of Tuesday night. The betting odds have a total of 5.5 wins up on the board for the Raiders this year. Seymour’s reluctance to report speaks volumes about Oakland’s chances of going over.