Buffalo Bills: Updated 2017 Head Coach Candidates
By Daniel Hahn
The Buffalo Bills are ‘all-in’ again, but this time with a coaching search. Who will be the next Bills’ head coach?
There are several names thrown out there and before Buffalo Bills’ fans get excited or stressed out about the names being interviewed — or the final selection — let’s take a guess as to what will happen if selected.
As we get official notice of interviews, we will dive in with a close look at each candidate and what their possible impact could be on the Bills.
With a week into the coaching search, let’s take a look at what all the candidates have in common thus far.
- First-Timers
All the candidates interviewed have no NFL head coaching experience, which means the Buffalo Bills may have learned from their previous mistakes of hiring ex-NFL head coaches — like Dick Jauron, Chan Gailey and Rex Ryan.
- 4-3 Defense
It has been put out in the media that management wants to go with a 4-3 defense in the next regime. Almost all the candidates interviewed would follow that idea.
Emphasis on hybrid Linebackers will not be a part of the Bills future, putting into question how much value Lorenzo Alexander and Jerry Hughes will have moving forward.
- Flaws
All the candidates interviewed have flaws. If you want to knock them down, you can. If you want to build them up, it may take some work. What my challenge to you is, withhold judgment until you see how they fill out their staffs. Lack of experience in some regard is a common theme to all.
Fact is, the Bills won’t get Josh McDaniels — who was already fired once — and there isn’t an elite coordinator like Adam Gase on the market. More and more coaches are doing double duty as play caller and head coach, which hurts these candidates from getting that experience.
Outside of those trends we will have a lot of assumptions and questions until we hear from our new head coach. Even as confident as I am in the ‘No Retreads’ criteria thus far, you can never rule out a left field hire like Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Mike Smith or Pittsburgh offensive line coach Mike Munchak.
And with that, let’s see who the Bills have talked to since the end of the regular season thus far. We will update this thread as more interviews are known.