National Football League

Bills make latest fresh start under coach Gailey

Published Aug. 25, 2010 5:33 p.m. ET

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Chan Gailey has enough headaches to deal with as he seeks to make this once-proud franchise respectable again. The Buffalo Bills' new coach doesn't have time to address the problems of the team's immediate past.

''This is a new beginning for everybody,'' Gailey said when asked about last year's anemic offense. ''To me, all the other sins are all kind of gone away.''

If only it were so easy, and Gailey doesn't pretend it will be.

With 35 years of experience, the former Dallas Cowboys coach is fully aware of the challenges he faces in providing a spark not only to a perennially sputtering offense, but to an entire franchise.

''What's the biggest challenge? That's a good question,'' Gailey said. ''Every time you take over a team in a new situation, you're trying to change the mindset from hoping to win to expecting to win. And the mindset is one of the biggest things you deal with in any sport.''

New regime, less dysfunction.

That would be a start in opening the Gailey era, which formally begins Sept. 12, when Buffalo hosts AFC East rival Miami.

In the big picture, Gailey becomes the Bills' fifth head coach - including Perry Fewell, who finished last season on an interim basis - in 10 years. Buffalo has gone 11 years without a playoff berth, marking the longest drought in franchise history and tied with Detroit for the longest active streak in the NFL.

On a more immediate basis, Gailey arrives on the heels of a tumultuous season in which Terrell Owens was relegated to an afterthought in his one year in Buffalo by a team that proved it could be disruptive all on its own on the way to a 6-10 finish.

Offensive coordinator Turk Schonert was fired in early September. Head coach Dick Jauron followed two months later. Bills fans expressed their dismay by renting a billboard urging owner Ralph Wilson to clean house.

''There was a lot of stuff bubbling under the surface,'' receiver Lee Evans said. ''What can you say? It's a new day, though. That's the good part about this.''

The hoped-for turnaround must begin with Gailey, who brings a no-nonsense approach. He hasn't been afraid to be blunt, noting after a sloppy practice that ''we did some things that were kind of dumb.''

He's also proven to be funny, such as the time he was asked whether rookie first-round draft pick C.J. Spiller could be characterized as a hybrid running back.

''I don't know what that is,'' Gailey said. ''It's a car, isn't it?''

More important, Gailey has focused on instituting fundamentals to a team that a year ago had difficulty stopping the run, was undone by an offense that scored one or zero touchdowns in 10 games, and lost five times when leading or tied entering the final quarter.

Unlike Jauron, who preferred walkthroughs during training camp, Gailey's had his players practicing in pads and has allowed tackling.

''It's a tough game for tough people,'' Gailey likes to say.

The Bills defense is making the switch to a 3-4 style, which Gailey believes is better suited with its multiple blitzing schemes to keep opposing offenses off-balance. It helps that the Bills' strength is a deep and talented secondary that finished second in the league last year with 28 interceptions - nine of them from rookie safety Jairus Byrd.

On offense, the Bills have the makings of a run-first attack with a three-back rotation featuring Spiller, Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch. And don't rule out the team using the wildcat formation after unveiling it in practice this week.

With Jackson and Lynch nursing injuries, Spiller showed his dynamic potential by scoring on a 31-yard run in a 34-21 preseason win over Indianapolis on Aug. 19.

Spiller's presence even provided a boost to the Bills' passing attack. Quarterback Trent Edwards caught the Colts defense off-guard by faking a handoff to Spiller and then hitting a wide-open Evans for a 70-yard touchdown pass.

It was a reassuring play for Edwards, who arrived at training camp last month with renewed confidence in a bid to reclaim the starting job he lost midway through last season.

Though Gailey is not yet ready to pick his starter, he liked what he saw from Edwards, particularly considering the touchdown came a series after the quarterback had his helmet knocked off as he was flattened by a Colts defender.

''I went up and asked him after he got hit, `Are you OK?''' Gailey recalled. ''He didn't even flinch. I think he's a tough guy.''

Bright spots aside, no one is yet making any playoff plans for a team that has plenty of question marks and is stuck in an increasingly competitive division in which the Bills are regarded as also-rans.

Linebacker Paul Posluszny won't dispute outsiders' low expectations of the Bills.

''If you take our record from last year and say we had a lot of problems going into this offseason - quarterback, offensive line, new defense - why wouldn't you think that?'' Posluszny said. ''But it's our job to go out and prove them wrong. ... We've got to go out and win football games from the start, and then all that will change.''

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