As new Bills head coach Sean McDermott continues to flesh out his staff, several names have emerged as top candidates for Buffalo’s offensive coordinator position. As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, Chiefs co-offensive coordinator Brad Childress is on McDermott’s short list, as is former Jaguars offensive coordinator Greg Olson.
Childress, who began his coaching career back in 1978 at the University of Illinois, served as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator from 2003 to 2005 before becoming head coach of the Vikings. He returned to an offensive coordinator role for the Browns in 2012, and he has been a part of Kansas City’s staff since 2013. He was promoted to the co-offensive coordinator position earlier this year, along with Matt Nagy, although he was apparently prepared to retire prior to the promotion (he was also a candidate to reprise his role as Philadelphia’s OC after Doug Pederson was named the Eagles’ new head coach last year).
If Childress does depart, Rapoport tweets that Nagy would become the Chiefs’ full-time OC.
Olson served as the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator from 2015 through the first part of 2016 before he was fired in late October. At the time of Olson’s dismissal, Jacksonville’s passing game ranked 28th in DVOA and third-year quarterback Blake Bortles was showing signs of regression. Olson, though, has acted as play-caller for a number of NFL teams, including the Lions, Rams, Buccaneers, and Raiders.
We had previously heard that McDermott was targeting Mike McCoy or Norv Turner as the Bills’ next OC, but McCoy was just hired by the Broncos. It appears the young, first-time head coach is determined to surround himself with assistants that have considerable coaching experience, as evidenced by his offensive coordinator candidates and by the fact that he has already hired Leslie Frazier as his defensive coordinator.
Is it possible to add a report option for comments like these? It’s getting out of hand
Why Childress? He doesn’t call the plays in KC, Reid does!