Buffalo Bills Fire Defensive Line Coach Karl Dunbar
By Dennis Moody
The Buffalo Bills have fired their defensive line coach Karl Dunbar.
It’s a strange move since it happened at this point in the offseason. Most coaches get fired shortly after the season ends not two months after the last game. Dunbar was one of the coaches who followed Rex Ryan from the Jets to the Bills. He was a defensive line coach underneath Ryan for the last four years before being fired. It’s even weirder because the two had worked together for so long.
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In his official statement, Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan said “This was a difficult decision as Karl both played for me and then coached on my staff with two different teams and I have a great deal of respect for him. But I feel we needed to make a change and go in a different direction at this point in time and so I have informed Karl that I am relieving him of his duties.”
One can only speculate why this would happen so long after the season. Did Rex need a scapegoat due to the lack of sack production? The defensive line made up over 25 percent of the total Bills cap space last season according to Spotrac.com and the unit severely underperformed that salary even considering Kyle Williams was out of the lineup.
Was this move made because Rob Ryan needed something specific to do? His title of “Assistant Head Coach/Defense” is extremely unclear as far as what his actual responsibilities are. The only thing you can garner from that title is that he won’t be working with the offense. If he works with the line it would give him a larger day to day role.
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Maybe this move was truly made because Karl Dunbar was not an effective coach and that was one of the reasons the Bills defensive line played poorly last season. We may never know why the Bills made this move so late in the offseason but based on the way the unit played last year, a coaching change on the defensive line should be a good thing for the Buffalo Bills.