Buffalo Bills: Who to watch outside the AFC East this season

Dec 24, 2016; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars interim head coach Doug Marrone walks the field before an NFL Football game against the Tennessee Titans at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 24, 2016; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars interim head coach Doug Marrone walks the field before an NFL Football game against the Tennessee Titans at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
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Apr 28, 2017; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell (left), running back Leonard Fournette (center) and head coach Doug Marrone (right) pose for a picture during a press conference at EverBank Field. Leonard Fournette was the 2017 first round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports /

Jacksonville Jaguars

All Bills fans should cheer against Jacksonville this season. Is it because we are jealous of warm weather teams? Are we still feeling burned by the Rob Johnson signing? Maybe, but highly unlikely.

Their new head coach Doug Marrone is still a very unpopular man in Buffalo. He alone will peak Bills fans interest this season, but not in a positive way.

I like Marrone as a coach and think he is supremely talented at that. Let’s not forget that he got the Bills to 9-7 and a whisper away from the playoffs before he left.

Yet, leave he did. He left because he didn’t want to be in Buffalo. Sure he wanted to be a NFL head coach, but having the out-clause in his contract proved that even from the beginning he would want to look elsewhere eventually.

Upon leaving the Buffalo Bills, he didn’t get that head coaching gig he thought he would. In fact, it may have been how he left Buffalo as to why he didn’t get a head coaching job until now. In Jacksonville, Bills fans can get a glimpse of what might have been as Marrone and Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett are back in their same posts from Buffalo, but with better offensive personnel.

I respect the talent of Marrone as a coach. Yet, there is no reason to want to see Jacksonville succeed under him. The Jaguars are one of the most talented teams on paper. That happens when you are picking in the top 5 year after year. I don’t want the Jaguars to become to the Bills, what the Patriots may be to the Browns.

We all know the story, but think about it from a Browns fan perspective. Here is Bill Belicheck, a decent but unpolished head coach. Then he goes back to being an assistant and his second stint as a head coach he builds a dynasty and gives another city everything you ever wanted.

I don’t want that life, nor do I care to see it even get a slow start. I am rooting for no wins for the Jaguars in 2017.

Let’s give the devil his due, even Belicheck was loyal to Cleveland while he was there and refused to move to Baltimore, rather than loyal to his own checkbook and ego.

For our last team to watch, let’s look at a NFC team that should be followed closely by the Bills and their fans in 2017.