NFL rumors indicate that freshly hired Sean McDermott is likely to bring along Al Holcomb as his defensive coordinator with the Buffalo Bills.
It seemed obvious on Wednesday that the Buffalo Bills would be hiring Sean McDermott as their head coach, as they cut ties with all other candidates and invited McDermott in for a second interview. By the end of the day, the official announcement was made, and McDermott was introduced as the next head coach on Twitter.
An introductory press conference will follow at a later time.
McDermott comes in to a coaching staff that has been mostly let go after the Rex Ryan experiment failed. He has the task of finding the guys he wants to bring on, and bringing them in.
It’s been rumored that McDermott’s first choice of an offensive coordinator is Mike McCoy, San Diego Chargers former head coach, but McCoy is gathering interest as a coordinator option for the Denver Broncos as well. As far as who he will bring in as a defensive coordinator, it looks like McDermott will stick with what he knows and hire linebacker coach Al Holcomb, according to ESPN reporter Adam Schefter.
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Looking at Holcomb’s career path, it’s eerily similar to that of McDermott’s. Holcomb started off as a defensive quality control coach for a team in the NFC East (just like McDermott), and then worked up to be a defensive assistant.
He moved on to become a linebacker coach, and finally, a defensive coordinator, almost the exact career steps that McDermott took. It looks like Sean is sort of paying it forward, bringing Holcomb along and giving him a promotion that he feels is well deserved.
Holcomb won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants as a defensive assistant.
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Whether or not McDermott should have looked further for a defensive coordinator than the team he was on previously is up for discussion, but so far, it looks like the right moves are being made for the Bills.