There goes the season, Ryan Fitzpatrick who has never playe din, let alone won, a big game will lead the Bills to the AFC East title and they will finish ahead of a better coached and more talented Jets team b/c they signed a big named player who isn't a great player. Congrats Bills!
You might try reading the entire article. Banks had some very valid criticisms of the Jets that you refuse to acknowledge might be problems. He also pointed out that the Bills took other steps to improve beside signing Mario Williams.
As for Ryan being a "better coach" than Chan Gailey, that's debatable. He's had a better record with the Jets primarily because he inherited a better team than Gailey did, and don't even try to deny that. He didn't do so well last season when he didn't have as much talent on his team as in years past.
You can make all the excuses about why Ryan was clueless about the locker room rift that developed last season, but it's the HC
job to know what's going on with his team, all parts of it not just the defense or the offense, and to deal with the problem. OTOH, Chan Gailey moved pre-emptively in 2010 to quash any kind of QB controversy/locker room split when he named Fitzpatrick the starter over Edwards: Edwards was released.
I'm not sure that hiring Tony Sparano as OC = "better" coaching, either, as Sparano has never been an OC. Calling plays for a few games in one stretch of a season does NOT an offensive coordinator make. There's a lot more to the job, and the fact that the Jets were talking about bringing in Todd Haley at one point to be a "co-coordinator" for the passing game raises questions about Sparano's qualifications and ability. Well, good thing that idea fell through, as it appears the Jets are considering abandoning the modern NFL game to run some kind of platoon system with Sanchez and Tebow -- at least according to Rex Ryan. :rolleyes2:
The Bills, in contrast, replaced their DC with Dave Wannstadt, who brings a wealth of experience as a sucessful defensive coordinator to the team. The Bills also added the innovative and well-respected QB coach David Lee, who introduced the latest version of the wildcat into the NFL in 2008 in Miami, and who helped Matt Moore improve last season.
As for the Jets being more "talented" than the Bills in 2012, that's also debatable. The 2009-2010 Jets had a dominant defense, offense line, and running game that carried them into and through the playoffs. That dominance was eroded in 2011. The defense was still good but not dominant. The OL play was mediocre, partly because the quality of the personnel declined as Pro Bowl caliber linemen left and were replaced with journeymen or backups. OL depth was nonexistent because of injury and the failure of younger players to step up. Finally the Jets 2011 running game stunk it up. They were 29th in YPC. Shonn Greene was uninspiring as the supposed featured RB. What, exactly, has changed for the better, talent-wise, on the Jets for 2012 in these key areas with the exception of adding Coples through the draft?
The Bills have significantly raised the talent level on their team every year since Buddy Nix took over in 2010. They have had a plan and have gone about it in a very business-like way. The Bills prefer younger FAs, even street FAs, rather than older, big name vets past their prime, so a lot of the Bills aren't well known. Yes, the Bills made a big splash in FA by signing Mario Williams and then Mark Anderson -- actually their first big FA signings in three years -- but it's putting Super Mario on the same DL with Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus, and Mark Anderson that gets Bills fans and other observers excited; that's a formidable DL.
On the other side of the ball, the Bills have one of the best 1-2 RB combos in the NFL. If their young OTs (Hairston, Glenn, Sanders) can come through, they may be able to run successfully out of pro sets rather than just out spread formations, meaning that they would certainly be able to "ground and pound" better than the Jets if they chose to do so. Oh, yeah, and they recently signed Vince Young to compete for the backup QB and/or wildcat QB position.
Match up the Jets and Bills, and the talent levels are fairly even, although, admittedly, the Jets do have more guys with bigger names and bigger contracts.
