Bills QB Trent Edwards Voiced His Complaints about Turk Schonert

Turk Schonert might have been undone by his own players. Starting QB Trent Edwards and WR Lee Evans were critical of Schonert’s offense through the preseason, going as far as passing on their problems to head coach Dick Jauron. When an offensive coordinator loses the confidence of the teams starting QB, the inevitable is just around corner - as long as the franchise believes the QB is the future at the position, as the Bills do with Edwards.

Said Edwards about the problems:

Seeking stability after a rocky few days (and preseason), Bills owner Ralph Wilson Jr. summoned head coach Dick Jauron, GM Russ Brandon and others to his Detroit home on Saturday. Chris Mortensen reports no specific details about what was discussed, but it was described as a give-and-take conversation about the direction of the Bills’ offense. Through the preseason, that direction was decidedly down.

The Bills were asked about the meeting.

John Murphy of Buffalo News 4 spoke with Schonert about his dismissal.

Zing! Criticizing Dick Jauron’s conservative play-calling is always a crowd pleaser (isn’t that right Bears fans?). But was it warranted in this case? Let’s recap the Bills’ offseason. Schonert installed a no-huddle attack as the Bills’ base offense. The offense - particularly the first string, who did not score a touchdown in the preseason - struggled picking up the new scheme. Jauron asked Schonert to scale-down the playbook due to the apparent difficulties the players were having with it. Schonert refused. Jauron fired him. Schonert complained that Jauron is a football dinosaur.

From the Bills official website:

Terrell Owens has some fun with the news that his offensive coordinator Turk Schonert has reportedly been canned:

ESPN snark? Right on. But please - don’t give Skip Bayless ideas for his next column.

According to their official website, head coach Dick Jauron will address the media at 1:30PM ET today. The site neglects to mention why he’s holding a press conference. So I guess this means the team hasn’t officially recognized the firing of Schonert. Which means we still have to use the word “reportedly” for this story, even though more trusted sources than Mike Florio -- such as ESPN’s Adam Schefter -- are reporting it as well.

Anytime an O.C. is fired 10 days before the team’s season opener it’s a surprise on some level. But there were signs that this was coming, as Brian Galliford at SB Nation’s Buffalo Rumblings points out. Plus, you know, the offense has been absolutely awful this preseason:

Buffalo’s offense has been terrible this pre-season; Trent Edwards carries a quarterback rating of 46.9 into the regular season, the first unit did not score an offensive touchdown (but did turn it over five times), and in the last three weeks in particular, did not come close to resembling a competent NFL offense.Galliford goes on to say he’s happy with the move. And if Bills fans are pleased, who are we to second guess the decision?

From Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk:

According to Florio, he will be replaced by QB coach Alex Van Pelt. Sound familiar?