Why I have hope for the Bills future.

I think enough of the dust has settled from the Bills front office shake up that we can step back and have a good look at what is likely in store for the Bills in the coming years.

To begin, the Bills have Buddy Nix and Doug Whaley as General Manager and Assistant General Manager respectively. Both men come from two of the most successful franchises in the past 10 years; the Chargers and the Steelers. Both franchises have been playoff fixtures for years, and Nix and Whaley have been partly responsible for this success. How much responsibility can be debated, but neither man was exactly working in the mailroom before coming to Buffalo. Nix and Whaley are both football men with football smarts. Given their past success it will be a surprise to me if Buffalo isn’t a contender in the next 3 to 4 years.

At coach the Bills have Chan Gailey, and a who-the-hell-are-they rogues gallery of assistant coaches. Gailey is an average at best coach, but its easier to competitive with an average coach and good players. Mike Tomlin is an average coach who won the Superbowl with good players. Marv Levy was an average coach with good players. Norv Turner is an average coach with good players. Brad Childress is an average coach with good players. The list goes on and on. The point is you merely need a competent coach, and Gailey seems to be competent. To succeed, players are more important than coaches. Where to the Bills get good players? That’s up to Nix and Whaley and the rest of the scouting department. For now, I trust Nix and Whaley.

So lets look at the players The Bills have decided to switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4 defense. Brad Butler retired after a mere four years in football, and its clear that the quarterback of the future is not currently on the Bills roster. In short the Bills have a whole host of player needs. Nose tackle, Offensive tackle, Linebacker, Quarterback, probably Defensive End. This is a bit of a blessing in disguise, the roster needs a complete overhaul, but its needed to be overhauled for years. The switch in defense and Butler’s retirement have forced an overhaul. The Bills roster under Jauron played just well enough that a fan could think “Well maybe if they had a few more breaks they might have gone to the playoffs”. But the truth was the teams under Jauron weren’t ever anything but below average. They were a below average squad that looked average and so there was never a major roster shake up. The coming overhaul will allow the Bills to start with a clean slate, and again I believe Nix and Whaley will use that slate to paint a much nicer picture than Donahue, Levy, or Brandon ever could.

I expect 2010 will be an ugly season for the Bills, the first year of a major team overhaul is rarely pretty, but I also expect a much improved Bills team in 2011 and beyond.