Last year, the Bills unexpectedly lost their first-year defensive coordinator to Cleveland. This year, the Bills unexpectedly lost their second-year head coach.
Now, the Buffalo defensive players want to be sure that first-year defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz doesn’t leave.
“Chain him up to a car in the parking lot,” defensive tackle Kyle Williams said of Schwartz, via the Buffalo News. And that was before head coach Doug Marrone opted to cash in his ticket for $4 million in cash and a fresh start somewhere else.
Prior to Wednesday, the biggest fear was that Schwartz would land a head-coaching job elsewhere. Now, there’s a chance the new head coach (whoever it is) will want to hire his own defensive coordinator. It’s also possible that Schwartz will simply want out, for the same reasons Marrone did (but without the $4 million to walk away).
The smartest move for a franchise that finds itself plunged into organizational turmoil only weeks after acquiring geographic certainty could be to promote Schwartz to head coach. It would create a degree of continuity and stability for a team that currently feels like it has none.
Before that happens, new owners Terry and Kim Pegula could opt to throw millions at a big-name coach who would have even more leverage during negotiations now that Marrone has left and Bill Polian has stiff-armed the franchise after something far more serious than casual flirtations.