The Buffalo Bills embarked Monday on another offseason of change.
The likeliest scenario is it will be change with a lower case “C.”
The Bills need to reorganize their front office in the wake of Monday’s resignation of Marv Levy as general manager. They have a big change coming on their coaching staff due to the departure of offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild, the new head coach at Colorado State University.
History and the strong position of head coach Dick Jauron suggest the Bills will not strike off in a bold, new direction in filling the shoes of Levy.
The Bills have gone outside the organization in hiring a general manager just once in their 48-year history. That was when Tom Donahoe was hired in 2001. Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. still has a foul taste in his mouth over how that five-year tenure finished. There virtually is no chance the Bills will make an outsider “king” of the organization and give him sweeping powers over all departments.
Furthermore, the Bills are certain to be careful to ensure that the frontoffice remains figuratively joined at the hip with Jauron. The Bills have finished 7-9 in both of Jauron’s seasons. He is held in high regard by Wilson, the members of the Bills’ administration and the players.
If the Bills hired a new general manager from outside the organization with full control of the football department, there is a risk that person would want to bring in his own man as coach. That’s precisely what happened to Jauron during his first head-coaching stint in Chicago, when the general manager who hired Jauron was ousted two years into his coaching tenure.
That doesn’t mean an outsider could not take the reins this time, but he would have to meet Jauron’s full approval. The Bills believe they built good organizational trust between the front office, scouting and coaching departments the past two years, and they will not want to lessen Jauron’s security.
The likeliest scenario is it will be change with a lower case “C.”
The Bills need to reorganize their front office in the wake of Monday’s resignation of Marv Levy as general manager. They have a big change coming on their coaching staff due to the departure of offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild, the new head coach at Colorado State University.
History and the strong position of head coach Dick Jauron suggest the Bills will not strike off in a bold, new direction in filling the shoes of Levy.
The Bills have gone outside the organization in hiring a general manager just once in their 48-year history. That was when Tom Donahoe was hired in 2001. Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. still has a foul taste in his mouth over how that five-year tenure finished. There virtually is no chance the Bills will make an outsider “king” of the organization and give him sweeping powers over all departments.
Furthermore, the Bills are certain to be careful to ensure that the frontoffice remains figuratively joined at the hip with Jauron. The Bills have finished 7-9 in both of Jauron’s seasons. He is held in high regard by Wilson, the members of the Bills’ administration and the players.
If the Bills hired a new general manager from outside the organization with full control of the football department, there is a risk that person would want to bring in his own man as coach. That’s precisely what happened to Jauron during his first head-coaching stint in Chicago, when the general manager who hired Jauron was ousted two years into his coaching tenure.
That doesn’t mean an outsider could not take the reins this time, but he would have to meet Jauron’s full approval. The Bills believe they built good organizational trust between the front office, scouting and coaching departments the past two years, and they will not want to lessen Jauron’s security.
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