Two Bills Drive

‘The Buffalo Bills plucked two more coaches from the staff of the Tennessee Titans on Wednesday, naming Jerry Gray defensive coordinator and Ronnie Vinklarek offensive line coach.’

‘Buffalo also hired Ronnie Vinklarek from the Titans as the offensive line coach, Danny Smith as special teams coach and Miles Aldridge as linebackers coach.’

As hinted by Shout! earlier, the Bills have hired Miles Aldridge as linebackers coach. ‘Aldridge spent the last two seasons at Middle Tennessee State as defensive coordinator. Prior to that, he served stints as defensive coordinator at Southwestern Louisiana (1998), Arkansas (1996-97), Clemson (1994-96) and South Carolina (1991-93).’

The Bills also hired Danny Smith as special teams coach. ‘Smith had been the tight ends coach of the Detroit Lions for the past two seasons. Before that he was an assistant on Ray Rhodes’ staff with the Philadelphia Eagles from 1995-98, overseeing special teams and defensive backs for two seasons each.’

[Free subscription required] ‘Coach Herman Edwards added to his coaching staff yesterday, hiring Bill Bradley to coach the defensive backs… Bradley was the defensive backs coach in Buffalo under the Jets’ new defensive coordinator, Ted Cottrell. The Bills had the league’s top-ranked pass defense in 1999 and were second best in 2000.’

‘Each of Holmgren’s three previous quarterbacks coaches has secured a head coaching position: Steve Mariucci from San Francisco, Marty Mornhinweg with the Lions and Andy Reid, who coaches the Eagles.’

‘Williams leaves no rocks unturned. Self conscious about his teeth, Williams had braces put on when he was 40. "It was a two-year program, but I had him crank it up to 11 months," Williams said.’

‘Jerry Gray, the defensive backs coach for the Tennessee Titans, has been hired as the new defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills.

Buffalo also hired Ronnie Vinklarek from the Titans as the offensive line coach.’

‘Vinklarek spent the 1998 and ’99 seasons as offensive line coach at Oklahoma State. In 1997, he worked at Valdosta (Ga.) State as the offensive line coach. Took over as offensive line coach at the University of Houston in 1988. Vinklarek broke into the professional coaching ranks in 1995 as both offensive line coach for the Birmingham Barracudas of the Canadian Football League.’

‘There are reports of me being a detail and organized person, but (Donahoe’s) approach was extremely detailed and organized…one of the most impressive I’ve even been through. There have been some times I’ve been interviewed when I’ve thought, ‘How could they hire me with the things they just asked?’"’.

Terry O'Neil's astute analysis of the salary cap situation for each team in the AFC East. "New GM Tom Donahoe did little deal-making in Pittsburgh, so his early moves will bear watching. The guess is that he'll sign WR Eric Moulds to the richest receiver deal ever, franchise tag DE Marcellus Wiley, then allow a dozen others to leave. "

If you are a reader of the Stadium Wall message board (and you should be!), today will be slow as Rivals.com is expecting record site traffic for today’s college football national letter of intent day. Rivals.com overall traffic is heavily weighted towards college sports, but it affects the Pro Football network too.

‘Note to Mr. Donahoe: If Williams has kept thick files on every assistant in football and if his burning ambition for many, many years was to be a head coach, how thick do you think his file on you was? No wonder you were on the same page.’

‘Sheppard was non-committal about the Bills’ quarterback situation. "I think Gregg’s on record as saying when we get everybody together, we’ll evaluate it, then we’ll call the quarterbacks in and make a good decision for the Bills," he said.’

‘When asked if he could envision a scenario where both quarterbacks remain, Sheppard seemed pessimistic. "The organization has come out and (General Manager) Tom Donahoe stated that we have to make a decision," he said.’

‘"Just the chance to coordinate and run it and do it yourself is always something that appeals to you," Sheppard said. "Once you learn this offense from Mike (Holmgren, Seahawks coach), you can’t wait to get out and dabble in it yourself."’