Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR 550) - Under new head coach Joe Brady, the Buffalo Bills have two new coordinators to start the season. On defense Jim Leonhard has come in and on offense, Brady will still call the plays, but Pete Carmichael is the coordinator.
In last year’s 23-19 loss in Houston, the Texans had eight sacks and were all over Josh Allen. Carmichael said,
“I think they’re a top defense in the league, they create a ton of disruption and pressure on the edges. They can create from either side and even up the middle.
“Their linebackers they’re fast, they’re physical, they tackle well, then you start talking about the secondary and you’re talking about ball skills and turnovers that they’re able to create, so it’s a big challenge for us.”
Of course Carmichael wasn’t going to get into how they’re going to go about trying to neutralize the pass rush.
Carmichael watched last year’s game with Brady and the new O.C. thinks they’ll have it figured out this time,
“We all sat down as an offense and we watched all the film and it’s what are some of the things that they did that have to be better and I think we’re confident in the plan that we’ll put together and make sure we’re putting our players in a position to be successful.”
Jim Leonhard made his NFL playing debut with the Bills and now he’s making his debut as an offensive coordinator with the Bills. He did mention that it's different,
“It’s the first time calling plays in the regular season, but there’s nothing that matches that excitement you have as a player and finally getting to the NFL, so I’m definitely excited, I’m not trying to diminish that, but it’s nothing close to the same as being a player.”
Leonhard coaches these guys up and comes up with the game plan, but he feels at the end of the day, it’s the players that have to do it,
“It’s the play, speed and the confidence, that’s how I judge good defense. There’s going to be mistakes, there’s going to be calls I want back, there’s mistakes that are going to happen, but if guys are playing fast, if they’re playing confident, if we’re able to communicate pre snap within the calls, we’re going to give ourselves a really good chance to have success, I mean you want guys to make plays, but am I helping our guys to be in better position to make plays within the scheme. Ultimately it’s a player’s game and they’ve got to go finish and that’s where I have to be critical on myself.”
Within a game plan is player rotations and what they may be. Leonhard has a philosophy about that,
“To me it’s more guys earning the right to not come off the field as opposed to earning the right to be on the field. There’s a flow element to a game and there’s a rhythm and timing and some guys you don’t want to disrupt that and other guys it’s good to go a couple of series and take a step back.
“Your backers don’t necessarily rotate, but your defensive line, they’re rotating all the time, so it’s just getting guys to understand.”
Leonhard believes there’s more to defense than execution. He said,
“We’re not going to let the offense dictate the game, we have to throw our punches too. I don’t like to be reckless as far as how I call a game, but I’m not going to just sit back and say that we’re just going to out-execute you week in, week out, every situation to comes up throughout the game.
“There are certain scenarios within a game where we want to be really aggressive and there’s others where we will consistently be a little bit more passive on and we have to make an offense react to us at times.”
Leonhard said he’s going to be down on the field calling the defense because he feels more comfortable being on the sideline.
Pete Carmichael is the offensive coordinator while Jim Leonhard takes over the defense
Pete Carmichael is the offensive coordinator while Jim Leonhard takes over the defense
