<
>

Bills' Marrone ranks 28th in ESPN poll

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- On Monday, Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly quoted his former Buffalo Bills coach, Marv Levy, in an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio.

"'You're only as good as your quarterback is,'" Levy would say, according to Kelly.

That adage could apply to a recent poll of 30 informed NFL voters conducted by ESPN NFL Insider Mike Sando. He asked eight current general managers, four former GMs, four personnel directors, four executives, six coordinators and four position coaches to rank current NFL head coachesInsider on a scale from 1 to 5, with a 1 being the best.

Bills coach Doug Marrone received an average score of 3.53, ranking him 28th among coaches. That's a close parallel to a similar poll conductedInsider by Sando this summer, when EJ Manuel ranked 27th among NFL quarterbacks.

Marrone received 16 votes as a "4" and 11 votes as a "3."

"I think Marrone has the skills, the tools, the communicative ways to get to players," said one ex-general manager. "He is an up-and-coming coach. I like Doug. Of course, you can be good and be out of a job depending on where you are working. It's just not fair. We have all been there."