After Doug Marrone left his job as head coach of the Buffalo Bills, most fans approached the team's impending search for a replacement hoping to see gains made on offense, with a successful defense preserved. Rex Ryan, who specializes in defense, became the team's new head coach on January 13 - and after a slew of hirings on Monday, it appears that the bulk of his offensive coaching staff is now in place.
First, let's take a peek at what the coaching staff looks like on that side of the ball:
- Rex Ryan | head coach
- Greg Roman | offensive coordinator
- Anthony Lynn | assistant head coach & running backs
- Chris Palmer | senior offensive assistant
- David Lee | quarterbacks
- Sanjay Lal | wide receivers
- Tony Sparano, Jr. | tight ends
- Aaron Kromer | offensive line
- Kurt Anderson | assistant offensive line
- Jason Vrable | offensive quality control
The Ryan-Roman combination, as soon as we knew about it, spelled "ground and pound" right away, and most of the team's subsequent hires - Lynn and Kromer especially - reinforced that notion. Heading into the 2015 season, that is the expectation for Buffalo's offense. Everything seemed pretty simple.
These two tweets, published Monday, added a bit of curiosity back into the mix, however, and now there's some confusion regarding the direction of Buffalo's offense next season - particularly regarding game-planning and play-calling.
Nathaniel Hackett has a 2nd interview for Rams OC job this week. BUF wants him back and WSH and JAX also interested in him for QB coach
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 26, 2015
New #Bills OC Greg Roman will concentrate mainly on run game. QB coach David Lee & WR coach Sanjay Lal will focus on passing game.
— Vic Carucci (@viccarucci) January 26, 2015
The Hackett development may not amount to much, given that he is apparently receiving a lot of interest from Jeff Fisher in St. Louis. The question is, why would Buffalo want him back at all? They have an offensive coordinator in place, a quarterbacks coach in place... there doesn't appear to be any room for him.
But then, if Roman is going to focus predominantly on the run - which he did at both Stanford and San Francisco - then, perhaps, that would leave an opening for a passing game coordinator of some sort. That is a responsibility that Palmer could handle, and obviously, Carucci says that Lee and Lal will be involved, as well. But if the La Canfora report is true, and the Bills really are (still) interested in having Hackett back, then his focus would probably be on the passing game, no?
We still have a fairly strong indication of the style of offense that the Bills are going to run next season, but identity was never a huge issue in San Francisco, either. Roman (and former head coach Jim Harbaugh) were still roundly criticized in that four-year run because, among other reasons, the 49ers always had a "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibe regarding their offensive game-planning and play-calling. It doesn't appear that that will be going away with Roman and Ryan in Buffalo.
What do you think of the potential development of splitting up run game and pass game responsibilities on offense, Bills fans?