Getty Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson talk before the two teams faced off last season.
Like many believed he would be, Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has already become a hot commodity as teams search for their next head coach.
Both the Los Angeles Chargers and the New York Jets fired their respective head coaches on Monday and according to NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero, both teams have already requested permission to interview Daboll for their head coaching vacancies.
The Chargers fired Anthony Lynn after the team finished 7-9 this year and rookie quarterback Justin Herbert lit up the league by completing 66.6% of his passes for 4,336 yards and 31 touchdowns while only throwing 10 interceptions.
The Jets did the same with Adam Gase after only winning two games this season and putting on an abysmal display of football throughout the season. Although Daboll may not find himself in a better situation than he has in Buffalo, both the Jets and the Chargers are somewhat perfect for a coach with Daboll’s abilities.
Both teams will have a young quarterback as the Chargers will enter the second season of Herbert. The Jets will either stick with Sam Darnold in the offseason or they will likely use their first-round draft pick on a quarterback. Either way, Daboll would have a young quarterback to groom, like he has done with Bills quarterback Josh Allen over the past three seasons.
But Daboll isn’t going to spend any of his energy thinking about what could happen next season as the Bills have a pretty tall task ahead of them this week with their Wild Card matchup against the Indianapolis Colts.
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Daboll is Focused On Buffalo’s Postseason Run
Daboll’s popularity has come from Buffalo’s success as the Bills are 13-3 and earned their third playoff berth in the past four years after breaking a 17-year playoff drought in 2017.
The longtime football coach knows that and when he met with media on Monday, he made it clear that his priority is focusing on how he and the Bills offense can score on the Colts.
“I appreciate the question and I understand where you’re coming from, but I’ll say the same thing that I’ve said the past few weeks, we have a very important job this week, we’re behind,” Daboll said during a video conference call on Monday. “We have a short week and everything I’m going to do, and I know the staff is going to do, is focus on the Colts. I’m gonna try to put our guys in the best position. I understand the question, and I’m humbled by it, but I’m really focused on what we need to do here.”
In just his third year as the Bills OC, Daboll has taken the Bills offense to new heights as they are one of the top units in the league behind Allen, who is garnering attention as a possible NFL MVP candidate.
After the final week of the regular season, the Bills rank second in the league in total yards per game (396.4) behind the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and they also average the third-most passing yards per game (288.8).
But through the past six weeks, the Bills have taken their play to a new level as they’ve scored an average of 38.1 points per game. They also scored 47.3 points per game in their final three regular season matchups.
A Head Coaching Gig Has Been a Long Time Coming For Daboll
Before landing in Buffalo, Daboll made the coaching rounds holding offensive coordinator positions for Cleveland (2009-10), Miami (2011), Kansas City (2012). He was also the OC for Alabama in 2017 before coming to Buffalo the following year.
Daboll also held several different positions with the New England Patriots during two different stints, so he’s been building up towards this moment for quite some time. After the Bills conclude their postseason run, he might finally be in a position to lead his own NFL team for the first time.
But the Bills, most importantly the players, won’t let him leave that easily as they have voiced their displeasure about Daboll possibly leaving since the rumors of him doing so started a few weeks ago.
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