The Bills have another year where the start of January begins and instead of looking into playoffs they are looking at the draft and free agency. The good news is this year they get to also have a fun HC search as they undone the mistake of hiring Rex Ryan by firing him. Now begins the HC search which will determine what the Bills do the next 3-5 years.
THE HC SEARCH OF A LIFETIME
The Bills will be looking at 3rd HC in the past 4 years as Rex Ryan and his circus has left the building. Unlike the last time, the Pegulas are making the wise decision of letting Doug Whaley make the Head Coach pick instead of letting Russ Brandon the Marketing Genius decide for them. This won’t be as large a search as last time as Whaley has a pretty good idea what the roster he has built needs.
Many of the media are considering Anthony Lynn the sure lock to be HC because of continuity. To be fair, I can see why. The offense he called plays for was top 10 in scoring, #1 rushing attack and they looked pretty good against the likes of the Browns and Niners. He also has been around the league a long time and is well respected for his coaching of RBs. If the Bills wanted continuity, Lynn would be the one. However Lynn in his one game tryout, he crashed and burned like the 2014 Jets. Against the Jets on Sunday the team was flat in all phases of the game. The offensive line wasn’t blocking, the receivers were running wrong routes or not trying to catch the ball and the defense was the same as it was with Rex in charge. They also gave up the longest onside kick in NFL history. The team wasn’t motivated at all and had a play as bad as the buttfumble. I don’t see the hype with Lynn and if the Bills wanted to get over the playoff hump, I would look elsewhere.
Now on to who the ideal HC would be for the Bills. What they need is a guy who will run a 4-3 defense and who will let the offense not have a major dropoff. Kyle Shannahan is the best choice as his offense fits the Bills personnel and he probably will hire a solid DC to do his own thing. However I think the Broncos job is his for the taking and there is the problem of his dad might not want him to go to Buffalo. Patriot assistants are off the list because they will never go in division. That leaves only three real choices for the job. Teryl Austin has done a pretty decent job in Detroit with not the most talent and runs a 4-3 and knows how to use DL which the Bills strength is. Sean McDermott is another whose defense before this year was pretty good. He runs a 4-3 as well but primarily runs zone. His defense also requires a solid zone corner which the Bills don’t have (Gilmore is a press guy and Darby only tries in Odd years). The last guy is Harold Goodwin for the Cardinals. He has a connection with Whaley from their time with the Steelers so there is some comfort there and he has been getting groomed by Arians in Arizona to be a HC. One of those three I would like better than Lynn or Rex though even Marrone would probably be better. For the HC search, I expect Whaley to make a good choice as he knows this is his last chance.
On Two Big Contract Concerns
Also this offseason the Bills have two big decisions on the two huge parts of their team. The first one is Stephon Gilmore who will be a free agent after this year. Gilmore has had an up and down season as he was rocky to start the year but since week 7 has been a shutdown guy. He wants top 10 money and I’m sure some team will give it to him so the Bills will need to decide if they want to keep him or not. After him the secondary is kind of shaky as Kevin Seymour or Ronald Darby is even close to being a #1 corner. Also with safety being the largest need on the roster, I would rather go safety in the 1st than corner. It also depends on the scheme but I expect the Bills to at the very least consider franchise tagging him. He’s a top 10 corner and corners don’t grow on trees.
Now to the biggest decision which is Tyrod Taylor. Tyrod is a very interesting case as he is very up and down. As a passer he is bottom tier but he makes up for that with his legs and he is probably one of the most exciting players to watch in the NFL. However when the game is on the line, for the most part he doesn’t will the team to victory. I consider him to be similar to Alex Smith as he won’t lose you games but he won’t win you games. With how bad QB play is league wide, I am inclined to keep him and fix the defense. If Alex Smith can lead the Chiefs to the 2 seed, Tyrod can do the same for the Bills.
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