Greg Roman is no longer the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. This will actually be a positive for the team long term.
The Buffalo Bills are apparently moving on from their offensive coordinator. After Thursday night’s loss to the New York Jets, the Bills made a decision to part ways with Greg Roman. The first reports of the Bills moving on from Roman came from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Buffalo Bills firing OC Greg Roman, per league sources. Roman was NFL's top paid OC.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 16, 2016
This move may seem like a surprise to some. After all, the Bills did score 31 points last night against the Jets. So why would they move on from their offensive coordinator? Clearly their defensive coaches were to blame, right? Well, not exactly.
Roman has used some strange formations and play calls in the past for the Bills,and Thursday’s game was full of them. On a couple of occasions, Roman used a pseudo-wildcat formation, where he brought EJ Manuel in to play under center and moved Tyrod Taylor out wide. During all of these plays, Manuel snuck the ball up the middle and made little-to-no impact. On a fourth-and-1 late in the game, he was stopped and the turnover allowed the Jets to pull away from the Bills.
Roman also has overused screen calls during his time with the team. He notoriously loves using screen plays, but at times his playing calling has been ridiculous. Any time the team is facing a second and long, the team almost would always run a screen pass. Opposing defenses caught on to this and rendered the plays ineffective. Still, Roman would continue to dial them up and that hurt the Buffalo offense.
The now former coordinator also has not used his running back rotation properly to start the season. LeSean McCoy has gotten a bulk of the carries, but the team has not called a lot of plays to help him out. Too often, they have used him in screen pass scenarios that go nowhere. Also, as mentioned earlier, the team tried to convert a fourth down and did not hand him the ball, despite the fact that he is their best offensive player.
Elsewhere, Mike Gillislee has not been utilized enough either. He is a really good, shifty back who has barely got touches to start the season. The Bills foolishly signed Reggie Bush and he was given more of a role than the superior Gillislee. Part of that failure to figure out the running game has to be blamed on Roman.
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Roman will likely not be missed by the Bills. Granted, he did help Taylor develop into a potential franchise quarterback, but he has also limited the player too much by creating a bad offensive system. Perhaps a change will allow the Bills offense to reach their full potential.