Bills should cut ties with Gailey, Fitzpatrick

  The Buffalo Bills' playoff window didn't just close following the team's 20-13 loss at Indianapolis on Sunday - it shattered.

While the Bills haven't been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, they're far off. And if their showing against the Colts was any indication, they're no longer a threat at landing an AFC wild card birth.
 

The Bills own the NFL's longest playoff drought at 13 seasons and counting. They've become the laughing stock of the league and changes need to be made to improve this once great franchise.

The problems for the 2012 Bills begins with the coaching staff and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Head coach Chan Gailey's record with the Bills is now 14-29 since landing the gig in 2010. Former Bills' coach Dick Jauron was five games better at the same point of his Buffalo coaching career.

Jauron was a hated man in Buffalo. Fans erected a billboard along the I-90 demanding his dismissal. Gailey is starting to tread in the same water and, like Jauron, should be fired.

Gailey's coaching mindset has not changed in three years. His boring, second-rate play calling in a spread offense worked for three games at the start of the 2011 season, but has been largely ineffective since.
 

Possibly Gailey's biggest coaching flub this season has been his misuse of C.J. Spiller.
 

Clearly the Bills' most talented player, Spiller can take the ball to the house on any given play. He was this front office regime's first draft pick, and instead of playing him like so, they've sheltered him.
 

Spiller is a dynamic runner whose yards-per-carry average of 6.7 leads the league. He's drastically improved since his rookie season and has become an every-down back that should be touching the ball 25 times a game. The Bills' offense could be dominant if it was led by Spiller.
 

But Gailey has failed to consistently put the ball in his playmaker's hands, instead opting to be a pass-heavy team led by Fitzpatrick.
 

Fitzpatrick needs to go. He is just not talented enough to be a franchise quarterback in this league and has led this abysmal team nowhere.
 

He can't throw deep and other teams know it.  The guy was a backup in Cincinnati and St. Louis for a reason.
 

The Bills' number one priority in the draft should be to select a quarterback that can lead this team out of the misery Bills fans have dealt with since the Jim Kelly days.
 

Names such as Alex Van Pelt, Todd Collins, Rob Johnson, Kelly Holcomb, J.P. Losman and Trent Edwards come to mind when thinking of quarterbacks that have held the franchise back. They are not exactly household names.

Doug Flutie and Drew Bledsoe had moderate success in Buffalo but the Bills got them when they were past their prime.
 

At the start of the year, the Bills' defense was an issue. It probably still is, but led by Mario Williams, it's looked better the past number of weeks, rendering the need to draft a defensive player moot.
 

Four weeks ago, Williams was labeled by some as the biggest free-agent bust in the history of the Bills. There were 100 million reasons to let him go. But he really is starting to become the force on the defensive line that was expected when he signed with the Bills.

He's showing some life on the field and leads the Bills in sacks with 8.5. That's the most a Bill has had since 2009.
 

The team has gone defense in the first round the past two years, selecting Marcel Dareus and Stephon Gilmore. While both have played like young players at times, they're improving and look like solid players moving forward.
 

The Bills' defense is trending in the right direction. The same can't be said about the offense.
 

Come April, it's time for the Bills to carve themselves an identity. Draft the franchise quarterback that they, and most of their fans, have longed for.
 

And cut ties with Gailey and Fitzpatrick.
 

Bill Schutt can be reached by e-mail at Schutt.record@live.com.