The Buffalo Bills certainly were the talk of the NFL in 2011. After a 5-2 start, many experts called for them to not only make the playoffs, but to be a true “dark horse” in the AFC. Who could have blamed them? They had beaten the New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles. Their defense was leading the league in turnovers, their quarterback and running back were at the top of the offensive leader statistics. The mood on the local Buffalo radio call in shows was not as enthusiastic as the Los Angeles based studio NFL television shows. Why?

Buffalo Bills fans have seen this show before. Off to a great start only to implode midway through the year. 2011 would be no different.

What about 2012? Will they build off that great start? Injuries for sure contributed to the Bills’ collapse in 2011. So Bills fans should be optimistic for 2012, right? Not so fast. The injuries to Bills on offense and defense exposed, once again, that the Bills do not have depth to make it a full season. The NFL is a brutal sport that takes its toll on every team. Only those teams that have quality backups will be left standing at the playoff door at the end of the year. The team’s executive staff got so caught up in the team’s early success they gave Ryan Fitzpatrick a contract extension early in the season. Many a Bills fan is voting to have that extension nullified. The Bills may just heed that call and if they do, they have to draft a quarterback in 2012. Thus, spending a top pick early and not addressing their obvious needs on defense.

The defense may be top of mind for shoring up, but the offense has its issues just the same. The starting running back, Fred Jackson, was off to a career year before he was placed on injured reserve (IR). Jackson is no spring chicken and past the prime of an average running back’s life cycle. The offensive line, after the starting line-up, is in real need of depth. It was apparent after the center, Eric Wood, went down that there was no planned replacement. After Wood went on IR the team’s deep descent began. What about when the players on IR return?

Prediction for 2012: Bills fans will be in the same place they have been for 10+ years, rebuilding with at best a 5-11 record next year. The team just doesn’t have the depth to compete for a 16-game season. There are too many holes to fill in the draft to address them all with the 2012 picks. Having to address the QB position should have been the last of their worries, now it’s becoming the number one concern; again. One thing is for sure, the Bills fans continue to support their team fanatically, but how long that lasts could be another concern the Bills main office will have to deal with.

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It was a long time coming, but the Buffalo Bills front office made the move fans like me have been waiting too long to see. The team enters 2012 with George Edwards out as defensive coordinator, with linebackers coach Dave Wannstedt tapped to replace him. I wish I’d written that last sentence at around this time last year, but for the Bills, late is better than never.

After all, I have a hunch that I wasn’t the only Bills fan who figured that giving Wannstedt the DC job was the intention when his name surfaced as a potential Bills hire early in 2011. It wasn’t hard to connect the dots. Wannstedt had head coaching experience in the NFL, with the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears. He’d also recently coached the NCAA’s Pittsburgh Panthers, a team he’d taken to first in the Big East as well as leading them to three bowl games.

As a long time disciple of Jimmy Johnson, Wannstedt crafted that Dallas Cowboys defense which Buffalonians like me had learned to hate in those ill-fated Super Bowls in the early ’90s. He had a proven track record and plenty of experience, so I naturally figured he was being pursued to replace Edwards back in January of last year…which is right around the time Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey inexplicably started defending Edwards, making Wannstedt the linebackers and assistant head coach instead.

I’m no armchair general (manager), but keeping Edwards on as DC proved to be the senseless move we all thought it was, only delaying the inevitable. It’s hard to imagine why Gailey and company thought that Edwards, a man who’d only had assistant coaching experience, could take on the Herculean task of transforming a 4-3, cover-2 defense. Although Edwards had coached for a team that had previously done just that, he’d only been linebackers coach at the time. Indeed, Gailey himself had only ever had experience with the 4-3 before coming to Buffalo.

I think it’s safe to say that the Bills are moving forward with an upgrade at the DC position, but we don’t yet know what else will change for the defense. Will the Bills continue to rely on a 3-4 game-plan or will they finally give up on it and go to to the 4-3? Wannstedt has said that “changes” will be made, but he hasn’t committed to anything specific, saying that he’ll “sit back and evaluate things.” For this Bills fan, that’s progress.

Taurus Londono grew up in Buffalo, NY where he watched the Buffalo Bills go to four consecutive Super Bowls. He is a lifelong fan of the team.

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By Joel Thorman

– NFL Editor

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Jan 2, 2012 – The Buffalo Bills have fired George Edwards as defensive coordinator, head coach Chan Gailey confirmed. He will be replaced by Dave Wannstedt. This move shouldn’t come as a major surprise considering how porous the Bills defense has been this season.

Buffalo’s defense finished the year ranked 30th in the NFL in scoring. They routinely gave up a lot of points as the team lost eight of its last nine games. The Bills had a 21-point lead over the New England Patriots on Sunday but ended up losing 49-21.

SB Nation’s Buffalo Rumblings has GM Buddy Nix’s schedule over the next week for the end-of-season meetings:

To summarize: today, he’ll be meeting individually with players, who are cleaning out their lockers and taking a post-season break. Tomorrow, he’ll meet with head coach Chan Gailey and his coaching staff. Wednesday and Thursday will be dedicated to personnel meetings with his pro and college scouting staffs, and on Friday, he’ll sit down with team owner Ralph C. Wilson, Jr.

Apparently he didn’t need to wait to talk to Gailey about Edwards’ future.

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