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Buffalo Bills will interview Raiders’ WR coach Edgar Bennett for offensive coordinator

Another name on the list

The Buffalo Bills have placed a request with the Las Vegas Raiders to interview their wide receivers coach, Edgar Bennett, for their vacant offensive coordinator position. Buffalo is replacing Brian Daboll, who was hired as the head coach of the New York Giants.

As part of their hiring process, the Bills must interview at least two outside minority candidates, so this shouldn’t be seen as a slight of Buffalo’s passing game coordinator Ken Dorsey. Dorsey and Baltimore Ravens wide receivers coach Tee Higgins are the other two candidates we know of at this time.

Bennett doesn’t appear to have any direct ties to the Bills’ coaching staff. He played during his career as a running back for the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. He overlapped with Sean McDermott’s mentor Andy Reid with the Packers from 1992 to 1997 while Reid coached offensive line, tight ends, and one season of quarterbacks.

His first coaching job was as running backs coach of the Packers from 2005 to 2010 and then wide receivers coach from 2011 to 2014 under Mike Sherman and Mike McCarthy. From 2015 to 2017 he was McCarthy’s offensive coordinator until he was fired following that season. He has been the wide receivers coach for Jon Gruden since he was hired in Oakland/Las Vegas. Gruden was also a coach on those mid-90s Packers teams with Reid, serving as wide receivers coach from 1993 to 1994.

While he was the offensive coordinator in Green Bay, he didn’t call plays. Associate head coach/offense Tom Clements called plays for most of 2015 before McCarthy took over. McCarthy called plays after that. Clements was still above Bennett in the pecking order for the 2016 season but was not retained for 2017, leaving Bennett as the sole offensive coordinator (who didn’t call the plays).