FanPost

In Defense of Jauron

I know this is an unpopular idea, but I believe Jauron should remain with the Bills at least one more year. Give him time to field a mature team that he has methodically built.

I hope Wilson bucks fan sentiment and focuses on the task at hand. When Levy and Jauron came on board there was a sense that the organization had regressed and that somethings would have to be undone as well as rebuilding.

Since Levy and Jauron there's been a palpable sense of progress unlike with any of the Donohue years. Last year at this time our needs list was out of control as was evidenced in the lively discussions on this blog. Now, our needs list is very specific: we need competent starters at Center and Linebacker, upgrades or depth at DE, safety, and possibly TE. This is evidence of a team with pieces coming together.

If Jauron was as bad as is proclaimed, the team and organization would be in a state of regression and we definitely are not. We are simply a very young team with minimal depth and no margin for error and we certainly went beyond that margin due to injuries. I think the consistency is actually a sign that we have a solid core and that things are not falling apart, which does count for a lot.

Bringing in a new coach would certainly mean new coordinators, which would mean Edward's third OC in as many years and it may essentially mean that our first and second year defensive players become rookies again as they learn a new system. This makes no sense with a team as close as we are. If one argues that we should promote from within to preserve continuity, then you might as well keep Jauron.

There are simply no coaching guarantees. John Gruden and Shanahan who were widely acclaimed geniuses are beginning to seem very ordinary. Now we see that "Chucky's" superbowl win was riding the Dungy momentum and Shanahan is indebted to Elway.  BTW Mularkey is now being mentioned as a "hot coordinator" as is Josh McDaniel, even though we've seen what happened to Weiss in college and Crennel in Cleveland. Even Bill Parcells is no miracle worker. He couldn't make things happen in Dallas and Chad Pennington is single handedly the reason for Miami's success. The Jets succumbed to fan pressure to let CP go and Parcell scooped him up without blinking and voila.

My point is that we are going through what a young team goes through without the benefit of depth built through years and years of solid drafts or FA pickups. We are now getting to the point where adding FAs and good draft depth will make a difference.

Jauron has built the current team in his image and it is a successful model. All it needs is maturity. The single reason we are where we are is turnovers due to youth.  Jim Johnson, who was supposed to be a sure thing, struggled with young players in Miami. One of Parcell's strengths and Belichick's too, is that they bring veterans with them to stabilize young teams. This is something that Levy and Jauron failed to do.

I'm frustrated with the Bills, but if you look at the teams that collapsed this season, the Bills are a team with a bright future. I'm in Redskin country and these folks have no where to go. Their team started out really hot and tanked and there is no overall youth movement here and no one seems to know where to go with this. I looked at Tampa, Kiffin's moving on, the defense is old and plodding, their QB situation is a no-win situation. The Jets are in a boat load of crap. They mortgaged their future on a win now thing with Farve and now they are either going to have to put Clemens out there or cobble something together.

I'm not saying that DJ is the best thing out there. He's not. But he is good and I hope Wilson gives him time, at least one more year, to make this work. If he fails let him fairly (I don't think he will), but we can't take a decade of frustration out on him. He came in with a plan and let's play this plan out, at least one more year.

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.