Mike McCoy A Buffalo Bills Head Coach Target, As Well

Buffalo Bills President and CEO Russ Brandon said that the team would be conducting an "exhaustive" search for its next head coach, and now they're reportedly after one of the hottest names on the market. ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that the Bills have requested permission to interview Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy for their head coaching vacancy.

McCoy, 40, has already been linked to vacancies with the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals - and the interest may not stop there. The long-time assistant to John Fox has burst onto the scene in recent years for his play-calling flexibility and adaptability. In the past two years alone, he's re-tooled his offense to allow Tim Tebow to steer Denver to the playoffs, then made a seamless transition to working with Peyton Manning.

Having spent 10 of his 12 seasons as an NFL coach under Fox, McCoy also worked his way up to passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach from the role of offensive assistant while the two worked for the Carolina Panthers. McCoy worked under Josh McDaniels for two seasons in Denver, then was retained when Fox became Denver's head coach prior to the 2011 season.

Bills brass - led by Brandon and including GM Buddy Nix, Assistant GM Doug Whaley and COO Jim Overdorf - are reportedly flying out to Arizona this week to interview Ken Whisenhunt and Ray Horton (and potentially Russ Grimm, though those reports are far less ironclad) for the opening, as well. McCoy, as an assistant on a playoff team on a bye week, is only available to interview this week; he'll then be shut down until Denver is out of the playoffs, or the week before the Super Bowl.

Including McCoy, the Bills have now been reliably reported to four coaches, with the word "interview" attached to all names: McCoy, Whisenhunt, Horton and Doug Marrone. Given the big talk coming from the organization, several more names could be added to that list, and soon.