Kerley To Visit: Adam Caplan of ESPN was the first to report that the Bills will be hosting former Jet WR Jeremy Kerley on a free agent visit tomorrow. He is a slot receiver with plenty of history playing for Rex Ryan. His production was way down last year only catching 16 passes for only 152 yards as he was used sparingly in New York after Rex left. He is a solid punt returner finshing last year with a league leading 48 returns. He was second in the league with 411 punt return yards.
Carpenter Restructures: The Bills opened up a little more cap space by doing a minor restructuring of Dan Carpenter's contract. His salary this year drops from $2.025 Million to $1.775 Million. The $250,000 taken off the cap can be earned back by clearing incentives. He also had a $250,000 roster bonus postponed and he will only get it if he makes the club.
Blake Hiring Official: The Bills officially announced the hiring of John Blake as their new defensive line coach. They also made two other adjustments to the defensive staff. They moved assistant defensive line coach Jeff Weeks to work with the outside linebackers. Jason Rebrovich was coaching the outside backers, he will now assist with the defensive line. These are moves that makes sense for the full change in scheme to a 3-4 defense. Rex Ryan addressed Blake's issues in a statement announcing his hiring. "I believe he will do an excellent job in working with the talented players we have at that position. John is a heck of a coach who has worked with many outstanding players and made them better. He endured a difficult time in his coaching career a few years back, but has moved forward with his life and put that behind him. Since that time he has worked with a number of NFL players and earned their respect with his ability to hone their skills and techniques. I don't think you will find better examples of his teaching abilities than the work he has done recently (as a tutor for) Jason Pierre-Paul (of the New York Giants) and Jerry Hughes (of the Bills)."
Bills Reportedly Hire Coach: The Bills have reportedly found a replacement for fired DL coach Karl Dunbar. Several reports say the Bills have hired former Oklahoma head coach John Blake as their new defensive line coach. He was released as a North Carolina coach in 2010 after being investigated for his relationship with an NFL agent. He did not cooperate with the investigation and was given a three-year show-cause penalty which kept him out of football until he was hired by Lamar University last month. Blake has two Super Bowl rings after being the DL coach in Dallas in from 1993-1995.
Dunbar Statement: The awkward timing of the firing of DL coach Karl Dunbar led to speculation that his firing had to have more to it than performance but several reports indicate that isn't the case. It was just a routine firing despite the fact firings don't normally happen in March. The lateness of the dismissal will hamper Dunbar's attempts at getting another NFL coaching job this year. He released a statement that said, "While I am completely surprised and disappointed in being relieved of my duties by the Buffalo Bills, I would like to thank: the Bills organization, Terry and Kim Pegula, Coach Ryan, the other Bills coaches, all of the Bills players and all of the staff in Buffalo. I am especially grateful to the numerous players and coaches who reached out and shared their support of me. I wish them success in the future as I seek my next coaching opportunity.”
Monday March 14, 2016
Firing Official: The Bills announced the firing of DL coach Karl Dunbar. It was first reported by Kimberly Jones of Newsday. In a statement Rex Ryan said, "this was a difficult decision as Karl both played for me and then coached on my staff with two different teams and I have a great deal of respect for him, but I feel we needed to make a change and go in a different direction at this point in time and so I have informed Karl that I am relieving him of his duties. I want to take this opportunity to thank Karl and wish him the best of luck in the future." Dunbar has 11 years experience coaching the defensive line and has been with Ryan since 2012. The timing of the change is odd but the Dline did underperform last year.
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