The Bills pro personnel department, coaching staff and scouting department will be meeting soon to discuss the direction needed to shape the roster in head coach Sean McDermott’s image for success.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
Here’s the Bills news of note for Wednesday Jan. 25.
1 – Timetable set to shape the roster
With the additions of offensive coordinator Rick Dennison and quarterbacks coach David Culley, the majority of Sean McDermott’s coaching staff is now in place. That has enabled GM Doug Whaley and McDermott to set up a timetable to chart a course for how the roster will be shaped this offseason to best fit both the offensive and defensive schemes.
“We’ve just set up a date where we’re going to sit down with them and say, ‘Okay give us your vision of your offense, the defense and special teams,’” Whaley told Buffalobills.com. “Then we’ll start incorporating their thought process of the players we have on the roster already and their vision of those players and how they fit into what they plan to do.”
Whaley said they’ll start that process as soon as they get back from the Senior Bowl this weekend.
“We’ll sit down with the coaching staff and the pro personnel department and go over our team and take the preliminary steps to getting a game plan for the offseason,” Whaley said.
2 – USC OT Banner is tallest and heaviest, but has game
On day one at the Senior Bowl in Mobile it was hard not to like USC OT Zach Banner. At 6-9, 360 pounds, the offensive tackle is a head taller than most of his fellow offensive linemen on hand. He can probably thank his biological father, former three-time Pro Bowl NFL OT Lincoln Kennedy for that. We paid close attention to his movement skills because he’s been largely pegged as a right tackle only, but his agility is quite impressive for a man his size.
He more than held his own in pass protection, considered his strength, and actually pulled from right tackle into the ‘A’ gap on an inside run play and flattened the linebacker with one of the hits of the day.
Scouts have long been concerned about his weight as Banner worked hard to shed weight throughout his college career to get down to as low as 345 at the start of his senior season. He weighed in Tuesday at 361 pounds. The next closest player was his college teammate DT Stevie Tu’ikolovatu, who weighed 350.
For Banner he points to the results he’s put on game tape.
“Two sacks (given up) in my college career,” he said. “That’s something to brag about. My last seven games of my senior I didn’t give up a pressure. The quarterback is not getting touched. With that being said I’ve done more than display my pass blocking skills. We can talk about pad level and working that every single day. I’m 6-9 so I’m always going to have to work that. Guys are always going to try to get under me and foot speed, but one of my strengths is pass blocking.”
Banner’s feet looked pretty good on day one of practice. Whether it convinces NFL talent evaluators that he can play left tackle is something else. To his credit he showed the feet to move in space. On one run play he got to the second level found a safety and nearly drove him to the sideline.
So don’t pigeon-hole him as a right tackle only just yet.
“I played right tackle 97 percent of my games in college. I know I can play both,” said Banner. “A lot of USC guys have played one side and then went to the other. We can note the best left tackle in the National Football League in Tyron Smith, he played right all three years at USC. I’m not comparing myself to him, but I’m comparing the situation. I’m going to be able to display that. But you’ve got to be able to go show it. So I’ll be able to get some reps at left sometime this week.”
Banner credits playing basketball including his first year and a half on the USC basketball team as the main reason for his movement skills. Hip surgery forced him to focus solely on football.
And despite the focus scouts have with his weight, Banner is good natured about it. When asked if he felt uncomfortable about stripping down to his compression shorts in front of all those pro evaluators to weigh in, Banner didn’t have a problem.
“It’s all good,” said Banner with a smirk. “I’m not a big, sloppy guy you know what I’m saying? I look good no matter what. You can strip me down and I’ll feel comfortable.”
A good week in Mobile might make his wallet feel a whole lot more comfortable too.
3 – McDermott set goals by Jon Gruden
He was just a 19-year old walk-on safety at William & Mary when he got the summer job at West Chester college back home near Philadelphia to work security at Philadelphia Eagles training camp. Sean McDermott’s father had been a coach at West Chester, and knew a few people to help get his son the security position.
The young McDermott was eager to see the way pro teams worked, prepared and planned for an NFL season. One coach in particular on Andy Reid’s staff drew McDermott’s attention the most that summer. It was the up and coming offensive coordinator, Jon Gruden.
McDermott was impressed with his ability to advance through the ranks in a short period of time, from driving players to and from the airport as a grunt with Bill Walsh’s San Francisco 49ers, to being a part of Mike Holmgren’s staff in Green Bay to being coordinator for Reid in Philadelphia, all by the time he was 32-years old.
At the time, the Bills new head coach, who was already formulating plans about coaching after college, made a conscious decision. He set his career clock to that of Gruden’s rapid and successful ascension as an NFL coach.
“Growing up in Philadelphia he was the guy I felt like I wanted to get where he is faster than he ever got,” McDermott told Buffalobills.com.
Being a coordinator in the NFL before his 32nd birthday was an ambitious goal to set, but McDermott did everything in his power to see it through. From coaching as a volunteer assistant as his alma mater after graduating, to showing up at the Eagles facility and stating that he was willing to be hired for any position available at that moment, McDermott was driven and determined.
Rising through the ranks with the Eagles on Reid’s very same coaching staff, McDermott was elevated to defensive coordinator by the time he was 35 after defensive coordinator Jim Johnson had to take a leave of absence due to his failing health. He didn’t do it before Gruden did, but models some of his daily approach to coaching after the coach who eventually won a Super Bowl as a head coach with Tampa Bay.
In fact upon meeting Gruden he shared the decision he made that day at Eagles camp with him.
“I didn’t accomplish that (goal),” said McDermott. “But he and I have a great relationship and he knows that story.”