ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- While former Bengals and Bucs head coach Sam Wyche won the Pickens County (S.C.) Republican bid for a county council seat Tuesday, his football legacy lived on in western New York.



As I watched Bills minicamp practice last week, something didn't look right. A year ago, the Bills ran an offense designed by Steve Fairchild, who learned the Mike Martz system during his stay in St. Louis. The Martz system, which goes all the way back to the Air Coryell days of Don Coryell in San Diego, aggressively sends receivers into routes and stresses the run after the catch.


Trent Edwards and the Bills are doing everything they can to make their offense more vertical.
But the motions of the receivers and the formations of the Bills weren't the same. As I racked my brain, I realized the difference. The Bills' offense had the look of a Wyche offense in the 1980s and '90s, only updated with the three-receiver and two-tight end sets of this decade.


"We're doing a little of what we did in Cincinnati,'' said first-year offensive coordinator Turk Schonert, who spent eight of his nine seasons with Wyche as a Bengals quarterback. "It was a little different back then. Back then, you didn't have free agency and movement, so you could hold a team together. You kept going and going and had a huge library (of plays).''



Wyche was an innovator. From the sugar huddle, in which players lined up quickly and tried to run plays before defenses were ready, to the mind games he used to play with defenses, Wyche kept opponents guessing. Wyche used smart quarterbacks to outsmart defenders. With little personnel turnover, former Bengals offensive players memorized a large inventory of plays and motions and dazzled defenses with their execution.



Tempo was one of the keys to Wyche's success. He found ways to get 11 offensive players to react more quickly than defensive players could think. He'd quick snap before defenders were set. He'd devise schemes to get defenders offside. He'd shuttle players on and off the field so he could play with the minds of defensive coaches and try to confuse an opposing defense's personnel groupings. Schonert, Buffalo's quarterbacks coach last season who was promoted after Fairchild took a head-coaching job at Colorado State, will bring a thinking man's approach to the Bills' offense.



Who better to run it than former Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards, who took over for J.P. Losman last season and started nine games? Losman will serve the final year of his contract as a backup, hoping for a trade but knowing he can leave the Bills through free agency in 2009. It's Schonert's job to take Edwards to the next level as a starter.



Bills fans will be all for it. Fairchild may have had Martz's offense, but for whatever reason, it wasn't The Greatest Show On Turf. Passes didn't go downfield. Lee Evans, a Pro Bowl talent awaiting the chance to play in a scheme that will punch his ticket to Hawaii, caught only 55 passes last year.




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Sam Wyche, who coached the Bengals from 1984 to 1991, had a keen offensive mind.
"We were the 30th-ranked offense the past two years,'' Schonert said. "I think the players are excited about the change.''


They are. As minicamp opened, receivers were lining up in several new formations. Roscoe Parrish, who has been primarily a slot receiver for the Bills in three-receiver sets, got extensive work on the outside. That allowed Josh Reed to work more in the slot, a role that fit him the best and was recognized as the season concluded.



Marshawn Lynch, an 1,115-yard runner as a rookie, will be more of a factor in the passing offense, a plan for 2007 that never materialized. Lynch, who's as good a runner as he is a pass-catcher, caught only 18 passes as a rookie. Under Schonert, Lynch will use his hands and feet.



The Bills primarily will use three- and five-step drops with Edwards focusing on getting the ball out quickly. The team also will emphasize throwing the ball deeper downfield. The Bills averaged only 5.92 yards an attempt in 2007. They were a singles team in a home run derby.



When asked what would be a realistic number for yards per attempt, Schonert didn't hedge.



"Eight,'' Schonert said. "If we can average 8 yards per attempt, that puts you in the elite. You hit that eight mark, and you are one of the elite teams.''



Tom Brady averaged 8 yards per attempt last year. Peyton Manning averaged 7.32 yards an attempt. Edwards averaged 6.1 as a rookie, but a team needs to average better than 6.4 yards per throw to put pressure on defenses. Short passes boost the completion percentages of quarterbacks, but if the ball isn't going downfield, cornerbacks sit in zones and jump routes for interceptions.



Even though the Bills resolved their offensive line woes with Jason Peters emerging as a Pro