Buffalo Bills Fire George Edwards; Name Dave Wannstedt New Defensive Coordinator

Deserts may need rain but they never get it.

It’s on them to get talent? Look at the players they’ve acquired for this D in the last two years. Edwards and Barnett via free agency. Drafting Carrington, Dareus, Williams, Sheppard, Moats, Batten, etc. Re-signing Florence, extending Kelsay, extending Merriman. They’ve acquired people who were either put into positions they weren’t ready for, or aren’t good at.

and I am sure Dave was professional enough not to under cut Edwards.

this change should’ve happened weeks ago so they could truly assess whether Wannstedt would make a difference, that is, unless they’ve agreed to switch to 4-3 for next season which I guess does make sense but is a little frustrating considering the draft choices over the last 2 seasons.

Agreed…I don’t know what he’s going to do as DC that couldn’t have been done as AHC. He still has had his hand in this terrible defense, and even in the play calling over the last few weeks.

Hopefully Buddy will have a discussion with Chan about how to properly use his “Waterbug” RB in conjunction with Freddy the monster, and limit the shotgun and 4/5 wides 80% of the game.

Yep. Let’s pass judgment the moment the move is made. Swell idea.

That defense we’ve watched for 32 games? That is not Dave Wannstedt’s defense.

I am sure this hire will be an upgrade. And let’s be honest, none of the big name guys where going to come here and risk their good reputation.

drool

There are better 4/3 pass rushers out there than him
melvin ingram is my vote for a 4/3 3/4 guy

Not big on Coples,

but Crick, Mercilus, and or Curry would be interesting DE prospects.

Coples will be an LDE and more of a run stopper in NFL

We need an RDE to get after QB too

We all felt that this was a good hire at the time because Edwards was probably not the answer or going to last long… It is probably better to have a guy in office working with the other coaches and players to know what he likes and dislikes….. Disappointed that the defense didn’t play better even with Wanny in house all year. Tells me that a lot of the “Bad” was on the players abilities and not Edwards, but someone had to be the “fall guy”.

Whether we are 3-4 or 4-3, I don’t as much care because it is all about match-up defenses anyway… I’d just like a team that can rush the passer so we can have our corners play more Man with our safeties being ball hawks like Bryd intercepting Tebow… Until we can get a push on the edge and from the middle (Darius was a huge improvement here this year), then our secondary is completely exposed and we can’t get off the field on 3rd downs. Next we have to learn to cover TE’s… until we can do that Gronk, Hernandez, etc. will eat our lunch.

Finally, let’s have some depth at a few positions too. Injuries are sure to pile up next year too. Having guys ready to step up and be impact players in essential in having a playoff team.

Good change to a better coach, with minimal disruption to the team.

The fact that he knows these players in practice and meeting settings gives him an immediate jump on a TRUE evaluation period for his players. His track record and pedigree is also quite impressive in itself.

If DW was on the market today and we hired him after an external search, I’m willing to bet the move would have a high approval rating. The fact that he’s already on the staff appears to have tarnished him in fans eyes already.

Shame, I’d like to see how the poll would have turned out had it been posted after this.

He coached the ILBs and they were much better than last year.

I agree, more ball running.

there are far more options for a 4-3 end than a 3-4 OLB at the top end of the draft board currently.

yea, it’s a good thing this years draft is very deep at OLB, so whichever defense we are going to run, we needed to add at least one OLB in the draft. That is the teams weakness, but they could be looking at DE now if they think Carrinton is no more then a back up in either scheme.

here here!

I feel like if Dave Wannstedt was being hired by another team in the division, we’d joke about him not being a good coach. But since it’s our Bills, the move will be met with immediate optimism.

sad, but true.

Look….I don’t know and I really don’t care what system the Bills decide to run as long as it isn’t the T2. Bottom line is none of the big names were coming here…as usual….and DWS is an ugrade to Edwards. How about we give the guy a chance to see what he can do as the DC

Great points. Why not a Kevin Butler, or some other assistant on the rise from a successful 3-4 team?

He wasn’t successful as a head coach so that must mean he’s a terrible defensive coordinator? Gregg Williams says otherwise.

I’ll take this track record and average over the last few years of what we’ve had.

Year / yards per game / points per game.

’93 4 3
’94 13 10
’95 19 22
’96 12 12
’97 12 29
’98 14 23
’99 5 19
’00 6 3
’01 5 11
’02 3 4
’03 10 3
’04 8 20

When I think of DW as a coach, I think of teams that had no QB and pretty good defenses. I think that’s true from CHI to MIA.

kelsay is better suited for OLB in 3-4 as evidenced by production… Williams? if you mean the meatball… he was fine as a 3-4 DT.

Shepp is a MLB. Maybe Barnett to OLB… but ultimately, my hope is that the MLBs indicate we need to keep going for 3-4.

I think Sheppard would be the strongside OLB in a 4-3 and the guy who comes off the field in the nickel, like he does right now. Barnett would stay at MLB where his coverage abilities make him a strong three down player. Barnett played most of his career as a 4-3 MLB before GB switched over a few years back.

Shep would be the MLB with Barnett likely moving to WLB.

Carrington? I don’t see why we put Kelsay back at DE where he managed to ride the pine for half a decade behind guys like Schobel, and Denney, who frankly, weren’t anywhere near dominant.