Brian Schottenheimer declines interview with Bills

If things keep going like this, we may have to rehire Jauron!!!!!!!!!!

And making sure he does all he can with whom he has a contract at that time, I can really respect that.

as a backup who never played a game before?

Coming in to try and maintain the perfect season (Painter)

or coming in and trying to win the BCS (Gilbert)

I hope the Jets get shutout this weekend too, but not because Shottenheimer turned down an interview. Who cares about him.

they all landed back on their feet. Williams was one of the hottest DC’s out there and Matt Ryan would probably tell you he is happy MM is there as their OC. The point I was trying to say is…

You’re essentially one step away from being an NFL Head Coach as an OC. And as much recognition you get as a coordinator, you get even more as the HC. Now I know they didnt offer him the job but its the same point. If hes happy with his OC spot thats fine, but he might not ever get that call again to interview. To not interview is the part I dont get. Keeping his job is nothing I have a problem with, but to not even take an interview is not smart IMO and therefore I call coward because hes in a “safety zone” in NY and cant handle the job as a HC. Him declining the interview shows me he doesnt have confidence in himself to be the head guy. Only a passenger… not the driver…

You have the benefit of hindsight. He promoted Butler after Polian left and we were treading water and going down the road to salary cap hell. Then he hires a top NFL executive with oodles of street cred and respectability. That guy and Ralph banked on two coordinators that didn’t work out and a bunch of flops at the QB position. The decisions weren’t necessarily wrong but the outcomes were.

internet shoots you.

I dunno if I was an up in coming coach I would love for a job like Buffalo……its a no lose situation………if you come in and have success you are considered a Savior……….if you dont….you’re not different than half a dozen other coaches in the league………eventually people will realize its not the coaching thats the problem with the Bills……….

Or perhaps all these people declining interviews view this job as a no-win……

I guess it all depends on the type of person these guys are.

Basically, yes. Comparisons aren’t a bad thing when comparing candidates, obviously, but once a hire is made, 95% of the relevant data from those comparisons don’t really matter anymore. From that point, the only thing that matters is results.

in a constatly evolving league, schemes matter just as much.

Right. All Brian is saying is that the DC is the guy that puts those schemes into place.

you will not find a better motivator than Dick Jauron as much people don’t want to admit it. His teams always gave maximum effort. What I want in a new coach is someone who has experience, understands personnel, and has the leadership and innovation to use the Buffalo resources to maximize the potential for success..

All of these defenses ebb-and-flow with variations over time, some generated by coaches adjusting to great players, but also as counters to offensive innovation. Each defense has best “the best” at some point over time.

The base 3-4 defense was designed in the ’40’s at OU but wasn’t used in the NFL until Miami used in in 1972, but is was more a hybrid defense than a true 3-4. The 3-4 became the defense of choice in the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s, particularly with the Giants’ use of Lawrence Taylor and the Niners’ use of Fred Dean. The defense wanned in the ’90’s, as teams saw teams winning with fast-flowing 4-3 defenses used by Dallas, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay. In the late 1990’s only two teams ran a 3-4 defense: Pittsburgh and Buffalo. The defense re-emerged with use by the Patriots and the ease of finding small college DE’s to fill the OLB roles, despite the difficulty in finding true NT’s to man the scheme. The blitz packages are extensive and have been the most successful recently in countering spread and Coryall offenses.

The 4-3 was designed in the ’50’s by the NY Giants. It was supposedly designed by then Defensive Coordinator Tom Landry to stop Jim Brown. The defense was the defense of choice through the 1960’s and into the 1970’s, and faded in the late ’70’s and into the 1980’s. The defense re-emerged with the success of Jimmy Johnson, who used a one-gap fast-flowing 4-3 defense with the Dallas Cowboys. Scouts also found it easier to find smaller DT’s and LB’s who could run and fit the scheme. When Tony Dungy took over the Bucanneers, it solidified this trend to the point where 30 of 32 NFL teams ran a 4-3 defense in the late 1990’s. The defense wanned as passing attacks became more complex and dependant on the spread formation, as the 4-3 had lesser blitz variation to confuse an offense.

The Tampa 2 began with the Steelers Steel Curtain defense in the 1970’s. The defense was run exclusively by the Steelers until Dungy took over as the Defensive Coordinator for the Vikings in the early 1990’s. He brought the defense with him to Tampa Bay and later Indianapolis. It shared the some of the same principles as Jimmy Johnson’s defense, but was also much simpler, as the defense played the same way every snap. The scheme began to flame out when Peyton Manning exposed it the year after Tampa’s Super Bowl win, as the defense is limited in the amount of variations that it can use during the game. The scheme also became harder to draft for as offenses got more complex, as a defense that runs a vanilla scheme needs tremendous athletes across its front seven.

The 46 defense began with the Bears in the ’80’s under Buddy Ryan. It quickly flamed out as the scheme was very vulnerable without a defensive front seven full of stars, with only the Eagles using the defense by the ’90’s. It re-emerged in a different form later in the decade. Many concepts survived: the SLB as a stand-up DE-type, the two DT’s and one DE covering the center and both guards, and a SS that plays in the box. This form of the defense was highly successful in the NFL in the late 1990’s and through the past decade, with the Giants’ Super Bowl win being the culmination of the 46 re-emergence. The Eagles, Titans, Bills, Saints, and Lions have run this defense the past decade, with the first three teams mentioned having near-NFL best defenses at various points. The main reason for the success of this defense is that it offers near-equal blitz variations as a 3-4 defense, and it’s easier to draft for than a traditional or Tampa 2 variation of the 4-3. In this defense, the DT’s are big space eaters but not NT types, the WDE and SLB are edge rushers, the SDE is a 5-technique DE, the MLB and WLB are smaller LB’s, and the SS is a SS-LB hybrid; all of these types of players are common in the college ranks. This form of defense is also more reliant on scheme and less on star players when compared to a Tampa 2 or traditional 4-3 defense.

Brian is right, and so is Fort Worth. Any defense with the right coordinator and proper players will work. The 3-4 was once a dead defense… now it thrives. Same with every other defense on this list. There’s no one “best” defense.

But the man had the greatest QB of his generation,the best GM of his generation,and 1 of the greatest offensive minds of his generation working for him. And he has 1 superbowl to show for it. He’s not a loser but he probably should have won at least 3 superbowl’s with those teams. Admittedly though I would kill for that kind of underacheiving from the Bills. But it was still underacheiving.