Today’s news that the Bills had decided to part ways with head coach Dick Jauron came as no surprise to anyone who has followed the team during his tenure in Buffalo. The real shocker is why it took so long.

Jauron is a stand up coach, well liked by his peers and players in general. He certainly isn’t lacking in intelligence, as he’s been successful enough as an assistant to obtain two seperate head coaching gigs. But the time for him to leave the Bills came and went at the end of last season, after Buffalo started the 2008 campaign with tremendous promise, only to fail miserably down the stretch and miss the playoffs once again. Not now.

There’s a reason why most teams choose to fire a head coach at the end of a poor season, rather than waiting until the mid point of the next campaign to say goodbye. It can be traumatic to the entire organization to fire a head coach, and when it’s done in the off-season, it at least gives the team an opportunity to develop a strong bond with the new guy before they go to war with him in the regular season.

That’s why I don’t understand the timing of this move. The overall motive, yes. Why it took this long, no. The Bills could have easily found a quality head coach last off-season, when guys like Steve Spagnuolo (Rams), Jim Schwartz (Lions), Todd Haley (Chiefs), and Josh McDaniels (Broncos) were all available and looking for work. Instead, they’ve been relegated to yet another lost season and another rebuilding project that will likely begin at the end of the year when the team cleans house under their new coaching staff.

From a fan’s point of view, this has to be a bittersweet moment, as Jauron’s continued existence as head coach was a slap in their face, but his dismissal at this point leaves the team with no real direction. The Bills have been spinning in circles for most of this decade, and given the effort it’s going to take to bring in a new coach, a new scheme, and the players needed to run it, you can bet that never ending death cycle will still be going for some time into the future.

It’s a shame that such a storied franchise has come to this end, but with a little luck and the right coaching staff in place, there may be light at the end of the tunnel sooner or later. The only question is how long it will take to get there.

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