It's December 31st.
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon?
The New Year begins tomorrow, and old acquaintances like Bills GM Buddy Nix and his Head Coach Chan Gailey may be forgot. Along with Gailey's Defensive Coordinator Dave Wanndstedt. All this could eventually lead to the release of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.
In addition, veterans like Shawn Merriman, Chris Kelsay, Terrance McGee, Brad Smith, Tyler Thigpen and Bryan Scott may not be back.
The littany of transgressions against the game of football and the fans in Buffalo is long for this year's edition of the Buffalo Bills. And many of them can be directly attributed to the coaching staff.
Everyone in Buffalo knows Fitzpatrick and his limitations, but the game-plan both on offense and defense game-in/game-out put the QB and the offense in situations destined to fail.
Much of the demise of the 2012 Bills, though, can be directly attributed to the defense--or lack thereof.
Much ado was made about Super Bowl winner Dave Wanndstedt taking over the reigns of the defense as coordinator.
But, his defense was an epic fail giving up huge chunks of yardage and tons of points throughout the season. And it wasn't so much that his base defense had holes, it was that he never deviated from the plan.
From the Miami Herald before the December game against the Bills: Wanndstedts unchanging approach finally a plus for Miami. Wanndstedt, of course, is a former Dolphins head coach.
The Herald's Armando Salguero wrote, "[Wanndstedt] still believes in playing a very unsophisticated system that doesn't do much in the way of disguises or blitzes or, well, changing from game to game."
Back in late September and early October the defense collapsed against New England giving up 35 second-half points on six consecutive Patriots possessions. The defense gave up 580 yards during the game.
Not to be outdone, the team travelled to San Francisco the following week. The team, once again, was in a giving mood surrendering 621 yards in a 45-3 loss.
Wanndstedt made little or no adjustments during those six excruciating quarters.
Then again, maybe, as Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, who covered Wanndstedt in Miami, put it, (a must listen, by the way) "that defense is awful, just God awful. Dave [Wanndstedt] is probably one of the worst coaches I've seen rise to that level [of coordinator]."
Individually, Mario Williams--the Bills huge off-season signing--didn't live up to expectations and his locker room cooler was a source of contention, at least for the media.
Mark Anderson, Williams' opposite on the right side, was largely ineffective before getting injured.
The linebacking corps was extremely weak. They couldn't stop the run nor could they cover, nor were they even in the proper gap.
And, the Bills had no conrerbacks either, at least early on whilst rookie Stephon Gilmore learned on the fly.
On offense, Gailey just couldn't figure things out, whether it was how to use Fitzpatrick, RB's CJ Spiller and Fred Jackson, and/or timeclock management, or even where he was on the field and when to use K Rian Lindell.
Of all the Gailey gaffes, the field goal attempt--"Not. Time Out. We'll punt."--fiasco really took the cake. The kick would have been a 52-yard, but Gailey thought it was 50. Once he found out that it as longer than 50--Lindell's limit in Gailey's mind--he called a time out and punted.
Then there's not using the game-breaking talents of Spiller, because it was Jackson's turn. Or, for some unknown reason, not using Spiller for numerous plays in the red-zone.
All of these things put too much pressure on Fitzpatrick, an average quarterback who lost his favorite receiver--David Nelson--during the first game of the season. And it was ugly.
Individually, things on offense weren't even close to the malaise on defense. Whereas the defense could use anywhere from three to five upgrades, the offense only needs a couple. Unfortunately, both are at key positions--QB and #1 WR.
Gailey and Wanndstedt were clearly out of their league, and maybe GM Nix was as well.
The Williams signing was huge and the Spiller pick, in hindsight, looks to be a revelation.
But his coaches as well as the contract extension and crowning of Fitz as their franchise QB--without a backup plan--may be his demise.
Not drafting a QB to develop, especially in light of the success second and third rounders like Andy Dalton, Colin Kapernick and Russell Wilson have had, looks to be a major hit against him. Not drafting/upgrading his wide receiver corps or his linbackers really hurt the team this season as well.
Not to mention the personnel choices: carrying two kickers--Lindell and "long kicker," John Potter--forced the team to release reserve LB Tank Carder (Cleveland) as well as reserve RB Johnny White (Green Bay.) Veteran punter Brian Moorman was also released in favor of Shawn Powell. "Wildcat QB/reserve WR Brad Smith was retained despite negligible results during his short tenure in Buffalo. FA quarterback Vince Young was released during camp, and the Bills traded for Tavaris Jackson for a conditional pick (7th-round) only to watch the back-up take up $3M in cap-space because there wasn't enough meaningful practice for him behind Fitz and #2 QB, Tyler Thigpen.
All-in-all, it's the 13th season in a row that the Bills have not made the playoffs--the third for Nix and Co. The team either couldn't handle the high expectations at the beginning of the year or they didn't really have what we, and nearly everyone in football, thought they had in terms of personnel. Either way, the Bills were toast in early December (once again) and the fans are calling for major changes.
Nix is probably in good shape, although he should be moved to make way for up and coming GM, Doug Whaley.
Gailey's record in his three years is 16-32 with very few division wins. He went 4-12, 6-10, 6-10. That speaks for itself, and he should be shown the door.
Wanndstedt is a sitting duck if/when Gailey's gone.
As for Fitzpatrick? The Bills shouldn't waste a 1st round draft pick for a reach at the QB position. As alluded to earlier, they have some major weakness at linebacker, wide receiver and cornerback that need upgrading. The talent level of those positions in the draft look to be far better than any of the QB's coming out this season.
I wouldn't blame this whole season on him, like WGR's Paul Hamilton likes to do, but if there's a change at QB, and it's an upgrade, that's OK too.
All I can say is, what a disappointing season.
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Update: Chan Gailey fired and his staff relieved of duties. 11:01 am December 31, 2012
Gailey meets tbe media, briefly.
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