With all the talk of internal strife and conflict, the last thing I expected on Festivus day was the re-emergence (at least officially) of Bills legend and HOF General Manager Bill Polian. As the season went on, the whispers of the Pegulas taking outside advice became more pronounced, particularly locally via Vic Carucci. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure Polian was that adviser and finally it’s been confirmed. While there were a few solid takes in Polian’s chat with Vic, some of his…”taeks” were cringe-worthy.
On his opening thoughts on the Bills were a mix of good and questionable:
Fix the offensive line, which he calls “aging and unathletic.” Add a receiver to complement Sammy Watkins. Get a true backup to quarterback Tyrod Taylor and draft a QB of the future.
Getting a backup to replace EJ would be rooted entirely in the sentiment of wiping the slate clean (despite EJ by stats and record being around 8-10th in terms of “successful” backup QBs) which at this point I do no disagree with at all. I’ll stump for Matt Hasselbeck all day as the #GoodVetPresence the walking fail that is Matt Cassel was alleged to represent. Complimenting Sammy with a receiver and drafting a QB for the future should Tyrod not pan out are again, great ideas that make sense. Finally, Greg Roman clamoring for Cassel, after having seen him play in years prior as well as this season in Dallas knocks a bit of the luster off his evaluative ability.
However, the “aging and unathletic” part for the line? Dead wrong. You have a 26 year old Left Tackle and the two 30 year old starters (Wood, Incognito) pull the most on the team – and both do a good job when doing so. If you want to say Miller is unathletic, okay – but he was drafted to be a power guard that didn’t do all the movement. Henderson is athletic, but between his illness and a little more waist-bending than ideal he’s struggled. Kouandjio has done better in the run game, but his mobility has never been seen as *that* much of an impediment – if anything, he’s been more inconsistent than unathletic.
Polian goes on to talk about Tyrod at length:
“You can win with Tyrod if the other pieces are good,” Polian said. “If there are six or seven Pro Bowlers at other positions, you can win with Tyrod. But he’s not the quarterback of the future. He’s not Jim Kelly, and, although he doesn’t have the same track record, he’s probably comparable to Frank Reich. But he’s not 6-feet-4 like Frank Reich. He’s small and he’s going to get hurt, and he did.
This pro-bowler line continues later, where I’ll discuss it at length, but I want to throw something out right away about Tyrod Taylor. Despite any missed throws, or not running a few times when he should’ve, or even not being “the guy” on late drives, the story of the Buffalo Bills starts and ends with the defense. Look at every year Rex Ryan has coached as a head coach and the inability of all of his QBs to prevent turning over the ball. Tyrod is the outlier vs all of them. You know what else is an outlier to that performance? The defenses those quarterbacks played with. This pro-bowl nonsense is the ultimate chicken-egg situation that is bandied about as a extension of someone’s confirmation bias. The Bills had Mario, Kyle and Marcell go last year, plus Shady and the alternates that well over 7 “Pro Bowlers”. But again, what did coaching do to maximize those talents?
Polian also goes in a bit more on the Pro Bowler issue:
“There are nine players on this team that are 30 years or older,” Polian said. “That may be the most in the league. If it’s not the most, it’s right up there. That’s not a good sign.
“How many Pro Bowlers are on the team? One,” LeSean McCoy. “How many playoff teams have one Pro Bowler?”
With regard to the Pro Bowlers, when you are winning – you will have Pro Bowlers on the team. Last year the Bills had several, mainly because the strength of the team was the defensive line. So with the same roster and a few key pieces added things fell apart – but that wasn’t on the personnel department, unless you are going to say Doug Whaley dumping Cassel and Jackson lead to “The Cold Front” barely being a snow-flurry on defense.
In terms of the aged players on the team, you have Mario – who is already being sold as the reason everything went wrong; Lawson, who is one of the few players Ryan has cited as knowing the defense; Wood and Incognito who have been okay (Wood) and very good (Incognito); Urbik, who has done alright when in for Miller, better than his rookie counterpart at least; Corey Graham, who has had an up and down season; Leodis, who is another dead man walking cut wise; and long snapper Garrison Sanborn, who has had some questionable snaps, but overall is a good player. That does not make for an “over the hill gang” roster construction.
Polian and I share the same thoughts on the defense – and he even cuts off the “veteran presence needed to help run it” issue:
“You need veterans to make that defense work,” Polian said. “First of all, the players thrived in another system – in a simple, straight-forward, very easy to understand, very easy to communicate system where there was constant repetition of the same thing, over and over again, taught in a very straight-forward way. And the techniques were geared toward what the players could do, what their skill sets were, and the plans were constructed around the players and what they could do.
….There is a guy designated to make those checks. It was Ray Lewis in Baltimore and it was Jimmy Leonhard with the Jets, who literally could not put one foot in front of the other at the end of his career.
“I remember asking one of the Jets’ coaches during the offseason, ‘How in God’s name can you put Jimmy Leonhard on the field?’ He said, ‘No one else can translate the defense, no one else can get everybody lined up.’”
I don’t argue with of this – except for the logic conflict of stating that the roster is too old” and “you need vets to make Rex’s defense work”. If that’s the case, why should it be a problem to have older players on the team?
When Bill Polian hired Tony Dungy, one of the advantages to that was the simplicity and plug-n-play nature of the Tampa 2 defense. While the Colts consistently tilted the spending of their cap toward Manning and the offense, Dungy would get drafted (or undrafted) players that might be undersized or “not a fit” in other defenses to play in his scheme. Coupled with Manning’s scoring, that complimentary football ecosystem allowed the defense more often than not to play from a lead and force the opponents to drive 9-19 plays to get to the endzone. The Bills were believed to do the same with an aggressive, blitz-heavy defense that’d get the ball back to put their offense in safe situations field position wise. That has not happened, obviously.
When I read Vic’s piece I don’t blame Bill Polian one bit – which probably sounds a bit crazy to some who’ve read my views on bringing him back in here at Buffalo Wins or on twitter. Let me explain: whenever Bill is on Sirius, as long as he’s been a host there will always be “the call”. What do I mean by “the call”? – it’s a 1. Bills fan that opens with “I wish you were still there to fix things” 2. That fan then asks for Bill to bring back Jim (or insert 90s great here) to fix the position of concern 3. The caller will close with “I just really wish a guy like you were there.” Any of us, hearing that 1-3x a week for several years would feel the same way, particularly with Polian’s record with the Bills.
Bill Polian, like any of us has the right to air his grievances on Festivus. But the Bills, the Pegulas in particular, do not need to hire another ghost of football’s past to fix what is wrong with the team.
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