I don’t know why everyone, or at least many, correlate opening up the offense with going deep or using the “long ball”. To me, opening up means going deep into the playbook and using bread-and-butter plays of all types that are real homeruns, which are not only deep plays. Think about Madden for a minute…Now while this may be a bad comparison, for a lot of us, it is our only connection with the mind of a play calling offensive coordinator.
In Madden, on offense, you have those plays that you really like; plays that give you that guarantee TD, or that big 20 yards, but they’re not always deep plays. Sometimes they’re playaction, screens, misdirection runs, etc. The point is, you try and get into a rhythm, where the basic plays are a success, the run is setting up the pass or vice-versa, and then bam; from the thirty yard line, you put the WR in motion and hit the TE on a skinny post towards the goal-line, or whatever. Anyway, just wanted to say that opening up doesn’t always mean going deep.

That is for certain, but I kind of like the idea of a former QB/QB Coach leading a young, promising QB with a pass-oriented offensive scheme.

As you said, I think unpredictability is something that will help the Bills this year, whereas a lack of it hurt them big-time last year. But as for trick plays, that’s definitely not something I’m looking for this year. I just want to see a solid offense move the ball with some standard play-action passes and a solid offensive line. If a “trick play” gets us out of a bad spot once or twice, that’s fine… but mixing up the run and pass a bit should do just fine. Getting too fancy would be a big mistake.

Turk will be fine. He knows what he wants, he adjusts his approach to utilize the players’ strengths, he has a good feel for the offensive play-calling, and that confidence will help the players. I think DJ made a great choice…

an interesting fact that makes me hope Turk is for real:

Last year the Bills led the league in % of run plays used when trailing in the second half of games. When I read that I couldn’t believe it. That is never a stat I want to see.

LINK

He really sticks it to Fairchild in the article too, which I absolutely love.

Fairchild was the most predictable play caller I have ever seen. High School football in WNY is less predictable than a Farichild led offense. He was a stubborn coordinater who kept using the philosophy that he belived in and not one that fit the players or game situations. Fairchild’s complete inability to be creative or unpredictable is something that we will no longer have to deal with and the offense should improve on that fact alone.

People keep talking about how Schonert is a west coast guy and the Bills will use more quick short passes. People also talk about how he will give Trent more oppurtunities to throw deep. The way Schonert will do that is by varying Trent’s dropback. One play will be a quick 3 step drop and Trent will throw an out, slant or cross based on timing. Those routes seem passive and Trent will never lose his dumpoff label, but they are actually an aggressive form of offense. Quick timing routes where Trent is only in the backfield for a couple seconds before he throws will force to defense to blitz less. That simple change in defense will then allow Schonert to call more 7 step drops, leave Royal and Marshawn or Barnes in to block and let Trent try to find Evans, Hardy and Parrish on deeper routes. Fairchild was a five step guy and was too stubborn to call anything else. Schonert will use a variety of formations, packages and playcalls to get the most out of the talent the Bills have on the roster.