A brief look back at the Schoenert affair

Personally I feel like we are now playing a huge game of “catch-up” on offense

This is worrisome – but indeed what I expected after the firing.

It seems to me that the obvious route to take is to get good at a few things – then once you perfect those – you add more and so on and so forth. Simple strategy that is used everyday with new employees at new jobs.

The NFL is setup the same way – until a player is proven that he can handle a job to perfection – dumping and piling information on him doesn’t help him grow. All of a sudden he’s got the deer in the headlights look that Trent has had lately.

I want a few things out of this:

1) I want plays that Trent likes to run – let him pick 20 or 30 plays that he likes – then work from there.
2) I want them to run things that are simple and effective in the gameplan. If it works – why go away from it?
3) Stick to things we know we are good at. If we suck at running sweeps – don’t force it. Don’t run things that we stink at – just dump that play and move on.
4) A better offense – i’m having a tough time thinking our offense could have been much worse than it was. We really have no where to go but up at this point – with the players we have – this should be achieveable if we run plays the players like.

I was all for keeping Schonert until he grows last season – but it was aparent that he wasn’t going to A)Mature and B) do what was necessary to field a good offense. Simply put – he was stubborn and ineffective. Props to K and the vast majority who wanted him fired long before I did. I know that I give people the benefit of the doubt to often – but it was clear that he was trying to run an offense that was geared towards players that were in the same scheme for 5 years.

This offense needs to start at the bottom and work towards something better. If that means having only 15 plays to choose from then that’s what we got to do.

GL DJ and Co. – you’re going to need it.

P.S. – AVP – tough situation there buddy – but only way to learn sometimes is to get thrown into the fire. You’re going to get some help – just don’t try to stress too much about it and have fun…..if you can

This firing had to happen. Although what this also signals is that Jauron made a mistake in hiring Schonert. Jauron has a coaching philosophy, and a standard of human performance he expects from his team, coaches, and organization. I’m not sure how much Wilson has undermined Jauron in his tenure, or if Jauron has indeed been the “BOSS” for his 3+ years in Buffalo, but one thing is clear….If you hire someone who will not carry out your orders, that will be insubordinate than you HAVE to fire their a**. I give credit to DJ for doing this, and nobody knows if it is too late to save the 2009 season before it begins. I hope for the sake of my favorite franchise that this move finally frees up Trent Edwards, that he can play to his strengths and that this team and this offense will unite together and rally behind DJ, AVP and TE.

Anybody who understands leadership and coaching in the NFL, knows that Jauron is at the top of the list. He runs a great ship, demands respect from his assistants and players, and treats them fairly and honestly. The problem with Jauron has always been his offensive side of the football. Finding a QB, OC, and a scheme that will produce points. He wants to LEAD games this year with his offense and then use his ball hawking secondary and Schobel/Maybin to get after the QB and produce TO’s. I think the world of Jauron as a coach and a leader. I just hope that this offense can find a way to click. If they start 1-3, 2-4, etc the pressure will mount, I just hope this offense will find its groove by mid season and help bring 10 wins to Buffalo

Great insight as always—

It is unfortunate that this didn’t come sooner, but what can you do. One can sympathize with the situation DJ had put himself in, as he did push to promote Schonert and was blowing up in his face.
NOw the best thing to do is move forward, and the only positive is that sometimes great urgency can cause great success.
This week will either be a tough hard fought game, or its a going to look like a College football score (i.e. bad for us)

I couldn’t have worded the situation so clearly. The smaller playbook is something I thought they needed to do for years now. I think the biggest problem of the last few O-Coordinators was that they mistook volume for deception, when in fact they made our offenses easier to read. If you have a base formation or two and run all of your plays from the same look, you get the reverse of the “3-4” benefits. They know you’re coming, but not from where. Guys will have a chance to get comfortable at the line of scrimmage and running routes. Even the line should have an easier time with their blocking assignments if they don’t have to think too much about what was called. Hopefully they find the identity, and as much as I have high hopes for TO, I would prefer if our identity started and ended with Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson.

Thanks G for your analysis. What you said makes perfect sense to me (if that counts for anything)….when I read the “pop Warner” comments from Turd I immediately thought there might be some truth to the philosophical difference stuff we were hearing. As for my hope for the opener and the season, simple can equal effective or predictable…. I believe past coaches of some import (Shula, Parcells, Lombardi) used much the same philosophy…. give your QB & offense a smaller amount of plays, practice and execute them to perfection and play sound defense… it will win you championships. Mind you, we’re not talking about Montana, Manning or Warner type QB’s, these coaches won with guys like Greise, Sims & Hostettler………. I think DJ is right, in spite of all his shortcomings…. make it easy for Trent & the O to excel and wins will come. Let’s all hope that the simplification produces results quickly. Also, Belicheck has defense issues (particularly the secondary)… maybe, given a well executed, simple game plan executed well will poise the boys for a MNF upset….. I’d take the Bills with the points.

We had heard much of the Schonert Insubordination angle but it’s good to know that that’s what actually happened, not some reporters interpretation of events. It’s even better to hear that players weren’t going to Jauron behind Turk’s back; AVP won’t have to be looking over his shoulder constantly wondering who is griping to Jauron behind his (AVPs) back.

With the talent Buffalo has the Bills should be able to put some points on the board against the Pats—something the Bills couldn’t do in the preseason against league stalwarts like the Lions. Being kept out of the end zone yet again would be crushing. On the other hand, scoring a few TDs (whether winning or losing in the process) would be a huge boost to Edwards and the offense.

i just hope it works.

. It is exactly what i hoped the Bills were doing this year. The “keep it simple” aspect of the game plan and of the no-huddle strategy should go hand in hand. It is a little Colt/Manning like.

I like positive things coming from people that know more about this team than the talking heads of ESPN and the general media. The local papers have even become downers.

This team can do it this year, all i ask is a solid season to boost confidence and continue to grow through another healthy draft and off- season

It’s a great idea to only go with plays the Bills run well and “like” to run. But they’d better jolly well gameplan for their opponents and the correct defenses they’re going to be facing! These plays they like right now, the ones that work right now, my question is what defense have they worked against? It’s important to bear in mind right now that Bills only have a sample of five preseason defenses and their own defense in practice with which they’ve even tried to attack. So we should be open to including plays (like sweeps) that might work in the regular season against things we haven’t seen. We should also not get too fond of plays that have worked in practice and maybe preseason but don’t work against their opponents in the regular season.

This is where offensive quality control comes in. It’s the job of that coach to break down film of our opponents to find tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. If (hypothetically during the season) some team can’t guard against the sweep at all, we shouldn’t rule out calling a few of them.

The Titans fake punt in the HOF game is a good example. Should the Titans like that play come time for the regular season?

As one NFL person told me this weekend, “if you can’t bust your hump for Dick Jauron, then you can’t work with anybody.”

I wholeheartedly agree here. Jauron is loyal to a fault to his guys, it seems. All Schonert had to do was respect Jauron’s wishes and authority and he’d still have a job. It’s tough to believe anyone would find it hard to coach under him.

Such is the irony of life that Turk torched the guy responsible for him getting the job in the first place as he exited. Tells you a lot.

This was as predictable as Brett Favre unretiring. Schonert is one of the biggest pricks, one of the most pompous, self-aggrandizing jerks I’ve seen as a coach in some time. I cannot stand the guy and am SO happy he is gone. This move, though it should have been done in January, is one of the best of the Jauron era. Of course, it doesn’t help that he hired him in the first place, but I digress. Is it too harsh to say that I kind of hope he never gets another job in the NFL? He may be a quality guy for all I know, but he more than irritated me with his antics, insubordination and failure to accept any blame. Buh-bye.

Personally I feel like we are now playing a huge game of “catch-up” on offense and the abilities of DJ, AVP, and the entire offensive staff and obviously Trent will be put to the ultimate test.

Well, they were in catch up mode even before the firing of Schonert, weren’t they? Luckily, there was a full week and half after the firing for AVP, Jauron and everyone to build a rapport for week 1. I’m worried that AVP can’t get the job done, but feel there is enough time to get ready for NE. It’s not like our O could get any worse from how they were playing when Schonert was dumped, so it shouldn’t be as worrisome to everyone, I suppose.

I’m thrilled about them wanting to build an identity. That has been one of the major problems with this franchise under Jauron. What has been the identity? On D, they were supposed to be building a Cover 2 based unit, but have done a very poor job of adding personnel to run the D successfully. On O, it’s been constant failure, which is mostly due to poor players and playcalling, but a lack of an identity is part of that. We should be power running team, not a finesse offense. Let’s hope AVP can get this unit utilizing their strengths and running plays to take advantage of them. I personally think play action, crossing routes, screens and tosses are plays this offense has needed to run for a long time now. I hope he feels the same way.

Looking forward to your next post. Take care.

Great insight as always.

If anyone doubts that schonert was a problem let’s remember that its not DJs style to ever do something like this. Schonert had to have deserved. I already like avp because of his relationship with our qb, you can’t understate the value of that

that teams were interested in our depth and that more trades may be coming. Were you referring to the possibility of a L. Walker trade (assuming you knew that Bell would start and Walker was a backup)? Did you know this was coming or were you surprised as well? Or is there something else possibly in the works regarding player movement?

Either way, thanks again for your insight and information…

But, in honor of Brian, you should change your name to Geronimo Jackson.