Marrone and Hackett 10-steps removed from Super Bowl Contenders

Throughout the season, after dreams of relevancy danced through the heads of Bills fans over the summer, it was easy to see that the Bills were at least a few degrees removed from the upper eschelon NFL powerhouses.

With the hire of Head Coach, Doug Marrone, and his hire of Nathaniel Hackett, his offensive coordinator at Syracuse to be his right hand man, just where do they stand now, from a coaching standpoint?

How about some "analytics?"

Degrees of separation:

• Syracuse was in the 7th-ranked conference in college football under Marrone
• The Big East is a step removed from the average conferences in like the MAC and ACC
• Which is a step removed from the upper-level conferences like the Big-10, Big-12 and PAC-12
• Those conferences as a whole are, arguably, a step removed from the SEC
• And, as proven by their dominance over the three of the last four seasons, Alabama is at least one step above all the rest.

Alabama could, arguably, perform at a lower level in the NFL. The steps from the bottom of the NFL to the Super Bowl are as follows:

• The bottom-feeders of the league, KC, Jax, Oakland are a step removed from below average
• Buffalo is in the below average area and are a step from respectability
• Which is a step removed from average, teams like Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis, Tampa Bay
• Who are a step below strong teams in flux like New Orleans, Pittsburgh
• Who are below the Division powerhouses like Baltimore, Houston and Atlanta
• They are a step below the Conference powerhouses/Super Bowl contenders like New England, Denver, San Francisco, Green Bay and Seattle

So how many steps removed are Marrone and Hackett?

At least nine, but we may call it 10.