As part of Buffalo Vibe's continuing coverage of the Buffalo Bills, we are pleased to bring you Part 1 of our 2013 season preview. As we move through training camp, we will bring you more key questions the team faces, as well as positional breakdowns and battles. Enjoy!
As we wade into the football preseason, every team has holes and questions it must address by September 5th when the NFL kicks the season off in prime time. The Bills are firmly entrenched in this as they have multiple question marks on their roster and sideline. Let’s look at the two most pressing issues facing the team in the first week of training camp, the QB battle and the coach.
1. The quarterback. Kevin Kolb tweaked his knee on a rubber mat walking to practice this weekend. As far as I know there are no such mats on the field of play in NFL stadiums, there are however 300 pound defensive players looking to inflict damage on whomever the ball carrier is. E.J. Manuel has looked solid throwing deep passes to receivers running against vanilla defensive coverages. This has been by design by the coaching staff to help him feel comfortable and gain confidence. Kolb meanwhile has seen blitz looks and different coverages going against the first team defense. Ideally the Bills want Manuel to win the job, however if they have any concerns about his progression then Kolb should start the season as the #1. This brings up an interesting conundrum; if this does happen when do the Bills pull the plug on Kolb and goes with Manuel? The last prolific case of this type of situation was in New York as the Giants had Kurt Warner as their starter and Eli Manning waiting to take over. The Giants made the transition in the middle of the season with their record at 5-4. It was not a popular decision in the locker room as athletes have pride and want to win; no doubt Warner gave them the best chance to win that season. The Bills will be lucky to have this decision to make by week 9 as they are predicted to win between 6-8 games total.
The Bills hope that Manuel turns into a Russell Wilson/RGIII type who can come in and learn on the fly, while slowly expanding the playbook as the season goes on. This is the climate in today’s NFL, if you can play; you play no matter how long you have been in the league. The Bills don’t need to get stuck in old time NFL thinking of letting the player ‘sit and learn’ for a season or longer. Doug Marrone has stated he is a pace pusher and free thinker when it comes to his players and packages, time will tell with the quarterback.
2. Speaking of Marrone, Bills fans are cautiously optimistic about what he brings to the table as an NFL head coach. In his first DAY at training camp he seemed bewildered with reporters asking why Mario Williams, his defensive cornerstone, was absent from practice. Bewilderment soon turned to hostility as Williams missed a second day of practice and had reportedly received a 2nd opinion on his foot issue. As a rookie head coach in the NFL Marrone has been baptized by fire, or more specifically a shooting star. Williams has a history of drama with injuries termed insignificant which turn into surgeries, so reports rightfully questioned Marrone on this. Chan Gailey infamously didn’t know anything about injuries; you were to speak to the trainers about that. That was a major part of his demise; he was viewed as an offensive coordinator who wore the head coaches cap on Sundays. Marrone will learn if he hasn’t already, that managing professionals is completely different than managing 18-20 year old kids. Bills fans can only hope that the way the coach handled this situation will not be indicative of how he handles sideline decisions in tight games. Fans have long been tortured by sideline ineptitude from Buffalo coaches, ranging from questionable play calling to personnel packages to clock management Thirteen years is a long time, Bills fans have been subjected to three GM’s worth of roster rebuilds each with varying degrees of failure. Let’s hope this regime made the most important decision in turning around a franchise- the quarterback, and let’s see if they have the guts to play him.
Next up: Key Defensive ?’s
