Scouting Report
4 - Buffalo Bills
Thanks for the memories, but don't expect new
coach Wade Phillips to wax nostalgic as he tries
to restore luster to these faded former
champs
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Smith, who ran for 840 yards in split duty with Thomas in
'97, becomes the full-time back he should have been last
year.
(Robert LaBerge/Allsport)
| On the
February day that the Bills announced the acquisition of
quarterback Rob Johnson, new coach Wade Phillips stood and
said, "This isn't the Marv Levy-Jim Kelly era.
Hopefully, this is the Wade Phillips-Rob Johnson era."
So it was no wonder that during the early
days of Bills training camp in the bucolic college town of
Fredonia, N.Y., fans and media alike were looking all
around for evidence of big
changes.
But there was defensive end Bruce Smith, citing shoulder
and knee soreness, sitting out his first of many
training-camp practices (just as he did under Levy) and
taking a ribbing from Thurman Thomas. "Some things
never change," Thomas said to Smith,
"like you never practicing in camp." The proceedings had
all the intensity of a YMCA summer camp, not unlike
the way Levy ran things
during his 12 years in charge. Similar offensive and
defensive
philosophies to what Levy had employed were also in place. So
what had changed? You had to look closely to see two things
that will set the '98 Bills apart from their previous
editions.
For starters, there will be no more blind allegiance to the
incumbents. For the first
five plays of camp, there
was Thomas, the 32-year-old running back, standing among a
group of backups and rookies, watching as second-year man
Antowain Smith took handoffs. Thomas will likely be a
third-down specialist this year, a role he should have
filled exclusively last
season. Instead, he split the running chores down the middle
with the 224-pound Smith, the perfect back for the
grind-it-out offense Buffalo tried to implement last year
and will again this season. Phillips, who spent the last
three years as Buffalo's
defensive coordinator, also wasted no time jettisoning
quarterback Todd Collins from the top of the depth chart by
dealing Buffalo's first- and fourth-round draft picks to
the Jaguars for Johnson. Among Phillips's free-agent
acquisitions were power fullback
Sam Gash, formerly of the Patriots, and run-blocking guard
Joe Panos, late of the
Eagles.
| Schedule |
| Sept. | 6 | at San Diego |
| 13 | at Miami |
| 20 | ST. LOUIS |
| 27 | OPEN DATE |
| Oct. | 4 | SAN FRANCISCO |
| 11 | at Indianapolis |
| 18 | JACKSONVILLE |
| 25 | at Carolina |
| Nov. | 1 | MIAMI |
| 8 | at N.Y. Jets |
| 15 | NEW ENGLAND |
| 22 | INDIANAPOLIS |
| 29 | at New England |
| Dec. | 6 | at Cincinnati |
| 13 | OAKLAND |
| 19 | N.Y. JETS (Sat.) |
| 27 | at New Orleans |
|
|
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Then there is the new Phillips approach when it comes to
rules. Over the course of a training camp, Levy was fond of
reading the full NFL digest of rules to his players,
lecturing frequently from a podium. Phillips had a simple
message during his first
training-camp speech to the team: "Be on time for
meetings, be on time for practices and don't embarrass
yourselves. I
expect out of you what you expect out of yourselves."
That was the end of Phillips's rules
speech.
Phillips, who was 16-16 in a two-year head-coaching stint
with the Broncos in 1993 and '94, won't sweat the small
stuff. His coaching credo is
simple: Play the best players. And he won't be too sentimental
about those halcyon days of championships past,
when the Bills reached a league-record four consecutive
Super
Bowls.
"Marv's a Buffalo Bill forever, a great guy, and he
recommended me for this job," Phillips says. "But
he's not here now. And Jim Kelly's not throwing touchdown
passes anymore. You can't go back. So where are we? We just
went 6-10. We led the NFL in
fumbles. We led the AFC in throwing interceptions. We had the
worst third-down conversion rate in NFL
history. [Actually the Bills' 25% conversion rate (53 of 212) was
the league's lowest since 1976.]
We had the lowest yards-per-pass average in the AFC.
Special teams needed an upgrade. I want the quality team
that people are used to having around, so we had to
adjust."
There could be more than a dozen new faces on the roster
this fall. "I've got to make an awful lot of new
friends," 13-year-special-teams veteran Mark Pike
says.
The most important new face is Johnson, who, despite having
only one
NFL start under his belt, signed a five-year,
$25 million contract extension in July. He has Southern
California written all over him. A tan, handsome cross
between Nicolas Cage and Keanu Reeves, he has but one
nonfootball goal: to own a beach house at
Laguna Beach, California. "Dude,"
"whatever" and
"cool" are among his favorite words. But he's also a gym rat.
"I know there's a sense of urgency," says
Johnson, who moved to Buffalo immediately after the trade.
"We're in a ruthless business. And Jim Kelly's an icon
around here. I know what I have to do. I
grew up a quarterback, and I know you get all the credit and
all the blame. There comes that time in your career when
you've got to put up or shut up, and get out there and do
it. I'm ready for
it."
He'd better be. Bills fans are ready for a lot of change,
most notably a change from the recent losing trend back to
the winning ways of years
past. —Peter King
By the Numbers | Inside Slant | Lineup
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