Leo Roth

@leoroth





"It's our time."

That's the Buffalo Bills' marketing slogan for 2014. But if the team actually does what it's promoting and ends its dubious, NFL-worst streak of missing the playoffs at 14 years, I know what my response will be: "Well, it's about time."

The Bills kick off their 55th season Sunday at Chicago and whatever feel-good, I'll-have-more-Kool-Aid-please optimism I was feeling a month ago has dissipated with the most disappointing, question-raising training camp and preseason in recent memory.

From second-year quarterback EJ Manuel showing us he couldn't hit water if he fell from a boat to rookie wide receiver Sammy Watkins twice injuring ribs on hits that wouldn't break a wine glass to a defense getting way too much credit for being better (without Jairus Byrd and Kiko Alonso, really?) to head coach Doug Marrone looking more each day like he needs a good cry, I'm convinced the Bills will miss the playoffs for a 15th year in a row.

And somewhere, Alan Branch is still vomiting out his car window.

Jaded beyond repair? I prefer hopelessly realistic. The Bills have finished with a 6-10 record three consecutive seasons, which makes me long for the glory days of 7-9 under Dick Jauron.

Of course exhibition records don't translate into how things will go during the regular season, in fact, quite the opposite often occurs. So it's not the Bills' 1-4 practice record that's the problem, it's how it was achieved: with downright shoddy play by the first-unit offense, inconsistent play by the first-unit defense and Marrone unraveling over silly things like camp fights and injury reports.

For me, it's always about the coach, the quarterback and the math.

And today, just like it was when last season ended, playoff clubs Denver, New England, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City and San Diego have better coaches and quarterbacks than the Bills. For that matter, so do Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

I have no delusions that this is the year the Patriots, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick loosen their stranglehold on the AFC East. So the math says Buffalo has to leapfrog half-a-dozen teams, including Miami and the New York Jets in its own division, to grab a wild card spot.

Had Manuel and Marrone exited camp in command of their jobs, I'd say "OK, it's possible." But that wasn't the case.

Today's win-now culture in the NFL is hard on young quarterbacks. It's especially hard on Manuel whose GM (Doug Whaley) and coach (Marrone) work for a team that is being sold. They will be quick with the hook in order to win this season and impress the Bills' new owner. With the signing of veteran Kyle Orton, it's now easier to pull the plug on Manuel if he doesn't show drastic gains in the first month of the season. Sure would be nice if coordinator Nate Hackett's play calling wasn't as predictable as school tax bills arriving each September.

As for Marrone, he's the kind of blue-collar, good-guy coach who is easy to root for. But the Doug Marrone of 2014 seems different than the Doug Marrone of 2013. The former Syracuse field boss appears more distracted and tense, less comfortable in the high-pressure job he worked so hard to land.

His decision to no longer comment on player injuries is shades of the paranoia that consumed Mike Mularkey, who lasted two seasons as the Bills' coach. After getting hemmed in on the injury status of a player or two, Marrone has given the job to senior vice president of communications Scott Berchtold.

News conferences these days go something like this:

Reporter: "Has Sammy Watkins been cleared to play?"

Marrone turns to Berchtold.

Berchtold: "He practiced today. We'll go through how much on Wednesday. That's when we'll do that."

Reporter: "Are you aware that any surgery is being planned or has already been done on Lee Smith's toe?"

Berchtold: "Not that I'm aware of."

Yes, reporters hound coaches for injury news because … well, because it's news, especially when it involves a starting player. It's Marrone's professional duty to handle those questions as best he can. If he's uncomfortable with giving a timetable on a player's return, the old standby "he's day to day" works fine.

Instead, Marrone has elected to create a carnival sideshow.

Mostly, though, he wears the look of someone who just ate a bad clam. It's the job. He was asked the other day about how he feels that Las Vegas odds makers put him 8:1 for being fired.

"We're always under the gun like that," he said of coaches. "Hot seat in college, hot seat in the NFL. You just keep going about your business. My focus is on the team, not about what people think."

That was a solid answer. And he didn't make the communications guy communicate for him. Maybe there's hope for Marrone after all.