My glass is half full. The question is: with what?

My initial reaction to the Chan Gailey hiring was "I want to die." Perhaps I over-reacted. Scott Pitoniak wrote about Gailey at Two Bills Drive. His notes on Gailey make me optimistic about the Bills' 2010 season:

◦He has NFL head coaching experience, having guided two so-so Dallas Cowboys teams to an 18-16 record and two playoff appearances in the late 1990s;
◦He is regarded as an innovative thinker whose work as an offensive coordinator with the Steelers, Dolphins, Chiefs and Cowboys was lauded by his players and peers;
◦He comes to Buffalo on the recommendation of Cowher, who reportedly was going to bring Gailey along as his assistant head coach/offensive coordinator when he returns to the NFL sidelines;
◦He won’t be queasy about having to work with mediocre quarterbacks such as Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Brohm (I left Trent Edwards off this list because I believe he’s a goner). After all, Gailey was able to make it to four Super Bowls and 11 playoffs in 15 NFL seasons with the likes of Mike Tomczak, Kordell Stewart and Jay Fiedler.

Then I decided to do my own research. According to Gailey's old Chiefs bio page, he was an offensive coordinator or head coach for 10 NFL seasons. Here's how his offenses ranked:



In general, his teams have above average offenses. But his best seasons came while working with Elway, Bettis, Aikman, Emmitt, and Irvin. Things weren't as rosy with Fiedler, Thigpen, Cassel, Lamar Smith, and Oronde Gadsden.

The Bills go into 2010 with Trent Edwards and/or Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB, TO and Lee Evans at WR, and Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson at RB. They're closer to latter list of scrubs than the former list of Hall of Famers,but I like to think they aren't quite as bad as the scrub list.

So I have hope that the offense will be better than it was in 2009, when it ranked 28th in points and 30th in yards. Or that it simply won't be as putrid as it's been since Jim Kelly retired (notwithstanding one good year from Doug Flutie and 8 good games from Drew Bledsoe).

This does nothing to address a defense which would have been dead last against the run, but for the Colts' decision to roll over in week 17. Of course, this also means that the run defense can't be any worse than it was last year.

Gailey's Georgia Tech teams were 7-6, 7-6, 7-5, 7-5, 9-5, and 7-6 from 2002 to 2007for a 57% winning percentage. He didn't set the college ranks on fire, but he never had a losing record. It would be nice if the Bills win 57% (i.e., 9) of their games next year. Their best record since 2000 was 9-7 in 2004; it won't take much to make me feel better about this team than I did this year.


I'm going to be optimistic about next season and take a "glass is half full" approach. Hopefully my Bills stein is half full of Delirium Tremens, or even Miller High Life, as opposed to the past decade's overflowingly full vats of urine. I'll do anything for an MF Doom segue.