The announcement that Turk Schonert was fired as Bills offensive coordinator came literally the instant I sat down in my car on Friday. With a weekend trip to Pittsburgh booked, I knew I wouldn't get a chance to "react" until Tuesday morning, which works out well because I've had even more time to get my thoughts straight.

Regardless of how I feel about Dick Jauron, Trent Edwards or Alex Van Pelt, I'm happy that Schonert is no longer a member of the Bills offense. After a non-descript playing career as a back-up signal caller, Schonert has struggled to make an impact with any of the offenses he's coached.

While 2008 in Buffalo was his only year as an offensive coordinator, Schonert has been the quarterbacks coach for 13 seasons with five clubs. In 1992, Schonert headed to Tampa Bay where he "guided" Vinny Testaverde to 14 touchdowns and 16 interceptions and a ticket out of Tampa. The Bucs were 5-11, but Turk stayed, with a young quarterback under his tutelage. Miami's Craig Erickson skippered Tampa to a 11-18 record over two years, but did show improvement before being booted in favor of Trent Dilfer. Dilfer tossed four touchdowns to go with 18 interceptions under Schonert, who was removed from his post and headed North.

Schonert's greatest success came in Buffalo from 1998-2000, where he couldn't choose between two quarterbacks with successful numbers. The Bills were 29-19 during that time, with Doug Flutie (47 TD, 30 INT) and Rob Johnson (22 TD, 10 INT) co-existing peacefully. He left after an 8-8 campaign in Orchard Park.

Schonert had another inexperienced starter in Carolina in 2001. Chris Weinke went 1-14 as a starter, with 11 TD and 19 INT. Turk's tenure in Carolina ended there. He took a year off in 2002 before returning to the league in 2003 with the Giants, where he coached Kerry Collins to one of his worst years as a professional. Collins and Schonert were out of jobs. After another year off, Schonert spent a season with the Saints, ensuring the end of Aaron Brooks' time in New Orleans. Three wins and 13 losses tend to correspond with 13 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. Schonert, Brooks, gone.
Sensing a pattern here? Schonert has failed with rookies, veterans, Pro Bowlers and Super Bowlers.

Now, I don't believe that means his firing is a fix for the Bills by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly won't hurt the team. The one enduring statistic from each of his failures is an awful lot of interceptions, and is there a chance that happens when you think you have the "Greatest Show on Turf," but really have something better suited for a video game. Could a "Pop Warner" offense be better? Thing is, lots of interceptions also happen to show up if your quarterback is substandard. How nice.

I will admit I was struck by my reading material on a road trip to Pittsburgh this week. With the exception of Raiders boss Tom Cable (4-8), Dick Jauron has the worst career winning percentage of any active head coach in the National Football League. Only Marvin Lewis, Eric Mangini, Gary Kubiak, Norv Turner and Jauron are under .500 as a bench boss. Jauron has won just .429 of his regular season games, while Turner is the only failure close to him (.439). It's not quite that easy, as Turner is now succeeding with a good quarterback, something all the above names save Lewis have had to dance around until recently.

Then, there's Edwards and Van Pelt. His struggles have been well-documented, and you'd be naive to think his Stanford woes were all due to the pitiful nature of the Cardinal. Bills fans may be justified to be nervous about the hiring of Van Pelt, especially when you consider that Schonert's hiring came under such similar circumstances. When Steve Fairchild was dismissed as the cause of Buffalo offensive woes, Schonert was promoted as quarterbacks coach (For the record, while I didn't love Fairchild, it should be noted that he did not murder the Colorado State program. In his first year with the program, the Rams went to their first bowl game since 2005, earning their first bowl win since 2001).

At best, this piece is a cursory study in numbers, and its possible that all four men (Jauron, Schonert, Van Pelt, Edwards) should not be involved in pro football. Yet, I have hope. Edwards has played well at times during his first two years under center. Van Pelt was briefly involved in the UB program that developed Drew Willy into an NFL draft pick, and has more knowledge of the no-huddle than most.

Perhaps the biggest indictment of Schonert, though, comes from one of his star wide-outs, Lee Evans.

"The basis of it was that we wanted to be simple and fast and move up and down the field, and he felt that being simple was Pop Warner," Evans told Channel 2's Stu Boyar this weekend.

This coming from a wide receiver who was reassured after a meeting with Dick Jauron last week. If the boys believe in the simple offense, maybe it was one man who was the problem. Maybe Edwards was suffering under the so-called tutelage of a man who couldn't succeed at any other stop. We'll soon find out, but even if its 5-11 instead of 3-13, I think the Bills win with this move.