That might also save his job-and is somewhere in the range of possibility these other options are.

Have a 300 yard passer and 100 yard rusher in the same game.

Gasp!

I just saw the headline. Didn’t read the post or comments yet. OMG Brian. Talk about pressing the hot button.

Only the Bills would hang on to a coach like Jauron after all his failures….again.

Other than a 7-1 or an 8-0 finish, along with a playoff berth, I don’t see how Jauron has any chance of keeping his job. This team cannot stay in this rut and go into another lame duck season. Not losing the team or winning a couple of games in a row should not be reasons to keep Jauron around.

If the Bills somehow retained Jauron, I will have absolutely no excitement about 2010.

The only way to finish strong, would be to not, as you put it Brian, “roll over like puppies.” Therefore, #3 and #5 to me must exist at the same time. Therefore, what you are saying is that the team must finish strong as you say, and the offense must do a 180 degree turn-around. That being said, the only way this team can finish strong in my opinion, is to turn the offense around. So therefore, the only way Jauron can save his job is to turn the offense around. And not just turn the offense into a somewhat efficient unit that isn’t completely useless. He must turn this offense into a powerful, can’t get off the field offense. This would be incredibly impressive at this point of the season.

Gotta give you props, Brian. You are one of the most even handed bloggers I read, not just in sports, but the gamut of subjects.

Don’t you ever just want to give in to emotion once in a while? Come on over to the dark side! It may not accomplish anything but sometimes the catharsis just feels so GOOD!

Jerry Sullivan has said repeatedly that he doesn’t feel like Jauron can win a Super Bowl here so what’s the point of keeping him around?

If he makes the playoffs he has to stay. If he runs the table and they don’t make the playoffs he probably stays. If he goes 7-1 and doesn’t make the playoffs he probably stays. Anything other than that… I dunno.

Not that this is a good reason or one that mostly likely will happen, but it is a very good possibility…

Ralph brough DJ back last year after giving him a 3 year extention to continue coaching. Rather than buying out DJ for the horrendous finish to last year, they decided that continuity for Edwards and our organization was first and foremost in improving our team. Of course everyone got the memo except for DJ when he fired Schonert and dumped Walker the week before the season started.

Consistency and keeping a solid nucleus of players in your organization is the key to winning organizations in the NFL (according to every Tom, Dick and Harry out there). So I would imagine there could be a sense of Ralph still believing that. Most certainly why would his inner circle vote to “change” when it mostly likely affects all their own positions too. New GM might mean new FO too? How much does Ralph believe there is a need for a change as compared to everyone else around him as compared to 98% of the fan base. Brandon will still sell tickets no matter what.

Ralph probably doesn’t want to each two years of a coached contract either… My guess is that there is a buy-out clause, but at what price and what price will it cost to hire a new staff, etc??? The “Bottom-line” I think does matter to Ralph and affects his decision making.

Ralf – “I sorry Dick, but you are fired”

Obi-wan Jauron – “You don’t want to fire me”

Ralf – “I don’t want to fire you”

Obi-wan Jauron – “You want to give me an extension”

Ralf – “I want to give you an extension”

Obi-wan Jauron – “We just need better players”

Ralf – “We just need better players”

Oh…..wait…..you can use the same mind trick two years in a row……can you???

I will say in order for Richard Jauron to keep his job he needs to find some of whatever that Kryptonite that makes Superman turn into

Bizarro….

Bizzaro Jauron would be fun!

And then he would keep his job.

I hope Jauron sees 2010, at this point with the franchise the way it is, unless, and I mean UNLESS, Ralph fires Jauron only to bring in a Football GM, and that GM hires his HC, I would much rather see Jauron come back. Cuz with the defense the way it is, I believe hiring a OC or getting a QB is just as easily going to solve Jauron’s problems, as would bringing in some new HC, that completely rips apart the personnel and still doesn’t have a QB. Feel free to tip me for saying anything kind about Jauron! oh and PS…I’d love to see him back just to spite 99% of the fan base….cuz when you got nothing, spite is always something

that’s about the only way he can save his job.

any suggestions?

(after he gets fired he’ll be singing George Thorogoods “I drink alone”)

I do not believe that DJ will accomplish any of points 1 through 6 and the result will be changes at OBD. However, history tells us that the chances of Ralph making a good decision on football people is remote. As noted a week ago on The “Football Card” fan post, Ralph has a 50 year record of being less than mediocre with a win percentage of less than 48% and it has dropped to less than 42% in the last 10 seasons. 30% of the time over the past 50 years he has fielded teams with 5 or less wins. So with Ralph the more things change the more they remain the same. We will all feel better until they start playing again in 2010. I know that this is fatalistic but the facts are inescapable.

I’m not sure what else explains this well-written post by Brian, but I’ll play along.

Jauron presents DNA evidence that he is Ralph’s illegitimate son, and demands an equal part of the team and profits when the team is sold. And it wouldn’t hurt of he purchased a shot gun.

Seriously, there better be no chance whatsoever of Jauron’s return next year. 8-0 finish? OK, if the Bills pull that off, he can return. If the Bills wish me and about 20,000 other season ticket holders to re-up, he better not return.

BTW, I’m all for emptying out 2/3 of the MNF booth to fill two needs. Jaws as GM, Gruden as HC.

Brian, do you really think making the playoffs is enough to save his job? An 8-0 run would be nice, but it was a 5-0 run that got him a contract extension, and we know where that lead us. I’d like to believe OBD wouldn’t jump the gun after witnessing another such run.

It should be clear that the team needs a throrough re-evaluation, from the front office down to the last player. I have to believe that any kind of winning streak would only mask the underlying problems with this team, and I want to believe the team would recognize that as well.

The Bills manage to get healthy, find even a teaspoon of offensive effectiveness and finish 8-8.

I don’t find the following scenario too unrealistic:

Ralph brings aboard some manner of quasi GM football “czar” to oversee operations and accelerate Brandon’s education on the pure football side of the business. Essentially adding a final voice to the Inner Circle Jerk.

Retaining Jauron as Head Coach, but the caveat being that a respected, competent and authoritative offensive co-head coach be found and given full authority over the O. Let Jauron focus on the D side of the ball, and over all team aspects.

1. If you’re not really good at QB, it all comes down to lights out defense. The Bills don’t have that and very few teams ever really do.
2. Every team across the league has injuries to work through, especially on the O-line. The Bills line (even at 100% healthy) was clearly an investment in youth and athleticism this year. It ALL starts and ends there.

Bellichick’s genius couldn’t work miracles in Cleveland
Dungy got fired in Tampa Bay for “under achieving” (unfairly in my mind)
Bobby Ross couldn’t make lemonade in Detroit
Herm Edwards and his passion and player’s coach mentality couldn’t change KC.
The great Mike Holmgren still only had a .538 reg. season winning percentage. (He’d be a great fit for GM if Ralph has enough TNT to blast him out of the Pac Northwest)

I think Edwards is smart enough and has the arm strength to still be a serviceable NFL quarterback. We’ll learn a lot these next few weeks (assuming he survives in one piece)
to see if he’s really still a shell of his former self (as in spurts last year and the NE game this year where he looked great).

The Bills should have signed Jon Runyan to a one year deal to bring some veteran nasty to the O-line and locker room. He couldn’t be any worse than the tackles we’ve been sending out there.

Jauron can save his job if he goes 6-2 minimum and the O turns it around. If the O DOES turn it around, I think AVP will look like he’s got a handle on things and might be seen as the new wunderkind Gruden.

Still helps to have that nasty O-line though…

you guys know this isn’t my bag usually, but,
imagine if they went 8-0 and rode into the playoffs. How cool would that be?

that will be the reason DJ is canned or retained.

Brian said some where between 4-4 and 6-2 to possibly be retained. Others think only an 8-0 record with a playoff appearance.

I say, it will only take DJ winning against all the AFC East teams remaining, so that could only be 3 more wins (3-5) to retain Jauron.

I’d say there are two ways for Jauron to save his job.

The first way is the obvious one: make the playoffs.

I think the only other way Jauron can save his job as if he somehow has this team looking like it can make a run deep into the playoffs next year. That would require quite a bit of Brian’s four points (other than making the playoffs) to come true. This team would need the QB to take huge strides forward over the next eight games. Buffalo needs Edwards to look so good that they can’t risk firing his coach and replacing him with somebody that might not want Edwards long term. He’ll also need an OL that steadily improves and the defense to slow down the run and continue to force turnovers. Jauron will have to shed the bend but don’t break label and play to not lose reputation (whether those are fair or unfair criticims) and show that the defense is creating turnovers based on scheme.

great post…and i agree 100%…its either put up or shut up at this point…either we get a better Offense and win some more games or u have to Go my Brutha along with that QB and ur staff

Tennessee looks reinvented. New England. A mad NY Jets team (though it didn’t help them against Miami). Miami’s run game. Atlanta at home and in the mist of a playoff race.

KC looks winable. Jacksonville could be winable. Indy could be winable if they’ve locked up home field by then.

Buffalo would have to win the latter three games (counting on Indy to have home field locked up). We’d have to go 3-2 against the tough teams, IMO, with Edwards looking great, the OL jelled, and the running game cranking. That puts us at 9-7.

Even with all that, if Russ Brandon truly wants a GM and gets his way, the new GM isn’t going to want Jauron.

Without any consideration for my personal thoughts on Jauron, and simply looking at the situation, it’s almost impossible. Jauron would almost have to win out or go 7-1, finishing 11-5 or 10-6 respectively, to have a chance.

But crazier things have happened. Around November 2007, the NYC media were sharpening their pencils for the impending off-season firing of Tom Coughlin. Funny thing happened: Eli Manning matured, the OL jelled, the run game started cranking, the defense gelled, and they made the playoffs as a 6th seed. And the rest is history.

:)

The fact that Jauron “Not completely sending the team into open rebellion against him” is an option that might allow him to keep his job is grave indeed. Even the 0-16 went into the slaughterhouse rather quietly and contently. Jauron being rewarded for succeeding in not losing the team is like a small boy being rewarded for not dying when he jammed a fork into an electrical outlet.

meant to say the 0-16 Lions but yall got my drift.

This team has no way in chance of making the playoffs. The only legitimate win, was against Tampa Bay, who got their first win this week. Secondly, the Bills won on a field goal because Sanchez threw 5 interceptions, and the same goes for Delhomme and his 3 picks at CArolina.
Unless the Bills win the turnover battle the rest of the season by a large margin, this team is 29th in total offense and 25th in total defense. They cannot put together a decent drive and opposing teams are averaging 177 yards rushing.
Call it the way it is and face reality. This team will win two more games at best.
This weekend against the Titans, Chris johnson will probably run for 150 yards at least and the Titans will beat the Bills by at least 14 points.
Time for Jauron to leave town!