Doug Marrone can be frustratingly stubborn and has old school ideas when it comes to designing an offense, but he deserves one more year to show his plan has merit. The Buffalo Bills final 9-7 record indicates the team is on the verge of returning to the NFL playoffs. Marrone got them this far and with a better offensive line and quarterback they should be playing at least one extra game next season.

Marrone is no innovator like Chip Kelly and his play calling philosophy is Lombardi like at times. That on top of his inability to coach a decent offensive line are in my opinion his greatest faults.

The positives are that he has instilled a system that the players believe in and as a result they won three more games in his second year than the first. That is saying something for this Bills franchise and in the NFL in general.

Marrone is known to be down right miserable to deal with by employees in the organization. His tirades can be heard up and down the halls when he is not happy. In particular he is not happy with GM Doug Whaley and that is not a secret.

Marrone and Whaley apparently are on different pages when it comes to building Bills future. Marrone was reportedly not part of the decision making in drafting Sammy Watkins and he obviously could not tolerate free agent signee Mike Williams for long on the roster. Somewhere the two men started heading down different paths and Marrone has not hid that fact well.

The Pegula’s will have to decide if both return or if one must go to keep peace. My guess is Pegula would keep Marrone over Whaley only because his job is easier to analyze. Whaley has had his share of successes, but a few glaring misses as well.

Many in the local media spread the “Polian returns to Buffalo” rumor over the weekend with no means to confirm or deny. Viewers of All Sports WNY on WBBZ-TV on December 16th would have heard Vic Carucci say that Polian would nothing to risk his chance at getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at the end of January. That includes accepting a position with the Bills before the vote took place. Carucci just wrote a book with Bill Polian and confirmed with him Saturday that nothing is confirmed or imminent.

However, I believe there is a better than 50/50 chance Polian could join the Bills in February and his arrival would be good news for Marrone. Polian believes in Marrone’s system and approach and would be a strong advocate for him should he join the organization.

There are those who point at Marrone’s conservative approach on 4th and short and gnash their teeth every time he punts anywhere near the fifty yard line. I too believe he plays it too close to the vest, but at the end of the day coaches should be judged on wins and losses and Marrone deserves a chance to take this team to the next level.

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