Buffalo Bills fire Chuck Driesbach, inside linebackers coach

The Buffalo Bills announced on Monday that inside linebackers coach Chuck Driesbach has been relieved of his duties.

Driesbach joined Doug Marrone's new coaching staff last January following a lengthy college coaching career, where he spent 36 years - 19 of which came as a defensive coordinator, most recently at Rice. He coached Buffalo's inside linebackers - Kiko Alonso, Arthur Moats and Nigel Bradham were his guys - while Jim O'Neil, a Mike Pettine disciple that joined the Bills soon after Pettine did, coached the team's outside linebackers.

Marrone had already announced earlier this month that wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard was no longer part of his staff, citing "philosophical differences" as the motivation for the move. While the Bills will need to hire a receivers coach at some point, the team may not ultimately end up doing the same at Driesbach's spot, knowing that they already have O'Neil on staff. Then again, Marrone and Pettine may still want to split up the linebacker coach duties as they were last season.