Mike Florio over at Pro Football Talk has just reported that the Buffalo Bills have fired their offensive coordinator, Turk Schonert. Schonert was preparing to bring the no huddle offense back to Buffalo.
Thus far, during the preseason, the Bills first team offense has somehow, against all odds, been even less productive than when the team went with the standard all-huddle offense last year. They say preseason is meaningless, but apparently what Bills brass saw was alarming enough to make the switch.
Schonert is third offensive coordinator to be fired by an NFL team during the preseason. Just the other day, the Bucs fired OC Jeff Jagodzinski, and the Chiefs reassigned (and all but fired) OC Chan Gailey earlier this summer.
Usually, you wait at least until October to give your OC the boot. But no, these teams felt it necessary to get on with it immediately, willing to go into the season shorthanded, with more coaches on the staff pulling double duty. It’s a sign of the extreme impatience with which NFL teams are run that coaches are now being run out of town even before having an official opportunity to fail spectacularly.
Why are so many OC’s suddenly being fired? You’ll notice that two of the OC’s replaced were serving under first-time head coaches. Chances are, both Raheem Morris and Todd Haley realized the men they placed in charge of play calling weren’t exactly a good fit and made a quick adjustment. There’s also the matter of firing your OC as a way of asserting your authority over players and coaches. It makes everyone feel like they aren’t safe. IT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE A BIG MAN. And I bet Todd Haley is huge fan of that kind of move.
It’s enough to make you wonder who might be next. After all, there’s a certain offensive coordinator in this town who got more than his fair share of criticism last season. Might this bizarre string of OC cannings prompt the Double J to give Jason Garrett a short leash? Will he kick Garrett’s tush back to Princeton if the Cowboys offense fails to click early in the year? If Turk Schonert’s firing is any indication, you won’t have to wait very long to find out.
