Turk Schonert fired today as offensive coordinator in Buffalo

Well you can go down several avenues to prove that one. You can look at the teams switching from the 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense, or teams implementing the Wildcat offense, and so on.

How bout this growing trend? Firing offensive coordinators before the season has begun! The Bills fired offensive coordinator Turk Schonert today, after Kansas City’s Chan Gailey was fired on Monday and Tampa Bay’s Jeff Jagodzinski was let go on Thursday. I talked to some longtime NFL followers, did some research and struggled to find any precedent for these types of firings. (If you find some, send it to me and I will be quite thankful)

I guess I’ve missed the memo on the importance of play calling in the preseason. After all, aren’t you supposed to save your best plays for the regular season and not put them on film for your opponents in the preseason? I’ve been of the opinion that the Bills front office has been a joke for a long time, and this solidifies it. Kansas City and Tampa Bay have first time sheriffs in town, so I’ll be more understanding of that, granted I still think it’s dumb to fire any coach before the season because of preseason performance.

Anyway, in latest firing, Bills Head Coach Dick Jauron

Jeff Jagodzinski relieved of offensive coordinator duties in Tampa

stated “It didn’t seem like we were progressing,” and “It was a decision I needed to make and I did it.” If I were in the media room, I’d ask Dick Jauron, as well as Tampa Bay Coach Raheem Morris and KC Coach Todd Haley, at what point did you decide that firing your offensive coordinator now was the best decision?

Overall, the Bills were outscored 75-12 in the first half and failed to score a touchdown in their final eight-plus quarters, including a 17-0 loss at Pittsburgh last weekend. So, I’m going to assume that the firing is related to the poor offensive performances in preseason games. It is important to consider the fact that the Bills were not playing with Terrell Owens. All that considered, teams usually play offensive starters less than half of each game, and in the final game, hardly at all. I’ll be generous and say the Bills starters played a half of each of their 5 games, so if you sum that up its 2 ½ games. Would any coach, offensive coordinator, or defensive coordinator be fired after three regular season games? I don’t think so, and one regular season game is more important than all of the preseason games combined!

Good luck Buffalo, you are starting the season with a new offensive coordinator, a suspended Marshawn Lynch, an injured Fred Jackson, a less than 100% Terrell Owens and no Jason Peters. Have fun finishing in last place in the AFC East.

Chan Gailey let go in KC

There is old NFL belief that I adhere to; a bad offensive line makes for a bad offensive coordinator. If you don’t have good players, great play calling isn’t going to overcompensate that much for it. Offensive and defensive coordinators are the biggest scapegoats in the NFL, and now the blame gets extended into the preseason.