Buffalo Bills: The Sky’s the Limit in 2018
By Andrew King
For the very first time as a Buffalo Bills’ fan myself. I finally see my favorite NFL team has broken through the Ralph Wilson Era.
No disrespect to the late former owner of the Buffalo Bills. Trust me I lived through the glory years of this franchise.
Pardon me while I put on my objective thinking cap. Any fan base that considers their favorite team’s glory years to be going to four consecutive super bowls and not winning a single one. Well, as harsh as reality might be.
That’s downright pathetic. That type of mentality is not unlike the mindset of the numerous previous general managers and head coaches excluding what I have coined the “McBeane Era,” over this seventeen-year playoff drought.
Why Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane are already different
Head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane just administered a shot of adrenaline into the heart of not only the Bills’ franchise itself. But also to the fan base that has pretty much been in a coma since dare I mention, “The Music City Miracle.” No need to rehash that.
We all know what took place at the end of the game, which was the last time the Bills played in an NFL playoff game. I also liken it to being in a horrible relationship. In that relationship, you ended up settling for not so much second best. No far worse. You settled because you didn’t want to end up being alone. This would be the equivalent of stop watching NFL games altogether.
What tends to happen is you looked around to your friends (other NFL franchises) and observed their relationships (with the fan bases). It’s only human nature to compare your relationship to the relationships your friends are in. So you as a Bills’ fan have seen how for example, the Steelers got, “Big Ben” and have had great success.
How the Packers drafted Quarterback Aaron Rodgers at least two to three years before Quarterback Brett Favre decided to at least retire from being on the Packers. You saw how Packers went on to have even more success after Favre with Rogers.
When you sat back and asked yourself, what do the Steelers and Packers respectively, have in common? You got it! Both franchises (your friends) have their franchise Quarterback which pleases their fan bases. That brings me to what it appears, “McBeane” have in mind.
Coaching matters here’s why
I contend to you the reader that yes; coaching alone will make a huge difference in regards to our beloved Bills in 2017. I think the Bills have a good enough overall team to contend if not make a serious playoff push. I’m not talking any of this, “In the Hunt” graphic on the television as we fall asleep as it’s displayed during the Dallas Cowboy’s game on Thanksgiving day either. Please do not sit there tempted to consider me a homer for my previous statement.
Instead, consider the following. The Bills under Rex Ryan were relatively close to making the playoffs in 2016. That’s just a fact! That was under a head coach in Rex Ryan that certainly left a lot to be desired as far as work ethic. That was a team with a coach who did not care a whole lot about the details, teaching technique, and fundamentals of the game of football.
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Rex Ryan figured he could catch lightning in the bottle for a second time with a second franchise, scheme the heck out of a whiteboard and that somehow would bring his team success. In the end, he and the Bills were not successful.
One of the main reasons why Ryan and the Bills ultimately failed was because the NFL had already seen that dog and pony show before.
So nothing he did was surprising, well at least in regards to the product he produced (along with then Bills’ General Manager at the time Doug Whaley) on the field on Sundays in 2016. Also, considering his general manager Doug Whaley is the guy who gave up assets or as some refer to them as draft currency, instead of banking or saving up picks to make a move to get a franchise quarterback. Yes, Whaley had the guts to move up to draft wide receiver Sammy Watkins in a draft filled with wide receiver talent.
Why? Who knows? Let’s consider the mindset of the two guys who replaced both Ryan and Whaley, respectively.