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Former Patriots assistant Daboll changes Bills’ offense depending on what scheme opponent’s defense runs
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Mitch Morse had an interesting description of Brian Daboll this week.
The Buffalo Bills’ center was asked about the idea that the team’s only true identity on offense is that they don’t have an identity, and what that says about the coordinator.
“I think it says he’s somewhat of a lunatic, you know what I mean?” Morse said.
Um, not exactly. That requires a little more explanation.
“Lunatic in a good way,” Morse said. “He’s just nonstop football. Puts in ridiculous hours. Relays information, divulges information to the players that is pertinent, but understands how to do that in a way that he wants it to and it’s about success.”
The Bills’ offense is ever-changing. One of Daboll’s go-to phrases deals with how the NFL is a weekto-week league.
“That’s how I’ve been brought up in the business,” he said. “The defenses are different that you’re going against. The schemes are different. You try to put together the best plan you can to try to win that game, whether it’s run it a bunch, throw it a bunch. Different run schemes, different pass schemes, that’s what we try to do.”
The Bills passed the ball or attempted to on 553 plays in 2019. That represented 54 percent of their offensive plays and ranked 25th in the NFL. The Bills were seventh in rushing attempts, with 465 carries making up the other 46 percent of their 1,018 plays.
“We don’t run the same thing that other teams run,” Daboll said. “We have our own style and our own system, but the philosophy behind game-plan (specific) offense is something that I really believe in.”
Daboll is the owner of five Super Bowl rings and one college national championship from his time as an assistant on Bill Belichick’s staff with New England and as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator with Alabama.
Saturday, however, will mark a first for him in his 27th NFL playoff game: Daboll, who is a candidate for the Cleveland head coaching job, will get to call plays.
The Browns’ interest in Daboll, 44, likely starts with the job he’s done with second-year quarterback Josh Allen. Since returning from the elbow injury he suffered last year as a rookie against Houston, Allen has improved his passer rating by nearly 20 points and his passing yards per game by nearly 60.
“He’s improving every day,” Daboll said. “He’s a young guy that’s hungry. Doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low. He’s a good leader. This’ll be his first postseason game, but there’s a first for everything.
“You have to be prepared. You have to do your job like you do every week. Understand that you’re only getting maybe 60, 70, 75 plays. You’ve got to make the most of them. You’re not guaranteed anything other than that.”
The Bills’ offense is still a work in progress. They finished the regular season 24th in yards per game (330.2), 24th in third-down conversions (35.85 percent) and tied for 23rd in points per game (19.6).
“We’ve had our challenges, but we started to lay a foundation offensively for how we want to build this thing on the offensive side of the ball,” head coach Sean McDermott said. “We’ve gone through the early swings and then we’ve kind of started to really improve in some areas and then there’s other areas we have to continue to improve on, just like our overall football team. ”
The offense seemed to find something in going mostly with “11” personnel — meaning one tight end (Dawson Knox), one running back (Devin Singletary) and three wide receivers (John Brown, Cole Beasley and Isaiah McKenzie) joined Allen and the offensive line, including rookie right tackle Cody Ford. That formation was used on 120 plays — 11.75 percent of the team total, ranking third in the league in percentage of plays featuring a team’s most common lineup.
The game against the Texans will have an interesting subplot — Daboll will oppose Texans defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel. Daboll got his start as a defensive assistant with the Patriots in 2000 and 2001. Crennel was New England’s defensive coordinator the second of those years.
“I have so much respect for Romeo, his family, the type of man he is,” Daboll said. “He’s an unbelievable person, unbelievable football coach. … I think he garners a lot of respect from most people in the league. He’s smart, he’s worked for some really good coaches in coach (Bill) Parcells and Coach Belichick. He’s got his own stamp, he’s been doing it a really long time and he’s really good at it.”
Knowing Crennel the way he does, Daboll is aware that Houston’s defensive rankings might not tell the entire story. Although the Texans rank 28th in yards allowed (388.3), 31st in yards per play (6.09), 31st in third-down conversions allowed (48.51 percent) and last in red-zone touchdown percentage allowed (71.43 percent), there’s a good bet that Crennel will have something schemed that the Bills haven’t seen before.
“I think our identity is just trying to figure it out,” Allen said. “Figure out a way to win the game. We’ve been in some tight ones that we’ve pulled through in, and we’ve been in some tight ones that we haven’t. So, ultimately, that comes down on my shoulders, and we’ve got to trust whatever he calls and try our best to go out there and execute the way we can.”