If not, he should be. Going into a new season Bills fans had high hopes for a much improved defense as a result of the loads of money spent to bring in new players. With one of the best defensive ends in the league in Mario Williams, plus the addition of pass rush specialist Mark Anderson, a healthy Kyle Williams, and a third overall pick in Marcell Dareus this defensive line would have opposing quarterbacks stricken with fear. Couple a strong d-line with the addition of a shutdown corner in Stephon Gilmore through the draft and second round pick Aaron Williams and the pass defense will be a tough one to beat. Just five weeks into the season and you can throw all these dreams out the window. Not only does this defense not look to have improved at all, but they look like one of the worst defenses the Bills have had in recent history (and that is saying something). Three out of five of the games played they have allowed 45 points against or more and the other two were against two of the worst teams in the league in the Browns and Chiefs. Quarterbacks have all day to throw, running backs have huge lanes to run through, and wide receivers are constantly open. So how can all facets of the defense all be failing at once? In my opinion the answer is not the skill of the players but the strategy of the coaches.
The Bills promoted Dave Wannstedt to defensive coordinator during the past offseason. Wannstedt most recently resigned from the NCAA ranks as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers. The last time he was in the NFL? He resigned as head coach of the Miami Dolphins in the 2004 season after starting off 1-8. Since his last stint in the NFL the game has changed drastically. The rulebook has been changed to increase offense and in particular passing offenses. Almost all teams are now pass first teams and quarterback passing records are broken/set every season. As made evident by the start of the season by the Bills I am beginning to think the game has passed Dave Wannstedt by. To me there is no other explanation. You could go through position by position and say that each player on this defense is not playing the way they could be. A prime example of this is the man that everybody seems to be talking about, Mario Williams. He has played at a very high level in the NFL before and now he is being dominated by lineman that are marginal at best. The same can be said for Mark Anderson and Kyle Williams. Young players like Marcell Dareus, Stephon Gilmore, and Aaron Williams were highly touted players coming out of college. To this point in their careers each of these players have had their struggles and have not shown that their draft position was warranted. All this tells me that the players are not being put in a position to excel. Whether it is the game planning, alignment, mentality, etc. these players are being set up to fail. I think it is time for this team to bring in a new coordinator that will be able to best utilize the players skill sets. Will the Bills do this? I admit probably not, or at least not yet. But what is stopping them? Things can't get much worse and at this pace with we will be throwing away another season really fast. Even if they can turn it around against the Cardinals next week it would not say much. The Cardinals offense is just bad. Kevin Kolb misses open receivers and the offensive line is getting blown up in both pass protection and run blocking. If the Bills defense and Wannstedt cannot make some plays against this offense there isn't going to be many teams they can stop. What do you think the Bills should do? Leave a comment or vote in the web poll on the home page.
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