Bills hire Winuvas as HC

by John Tatanka

Blogger, Buffalo News

The Buffalo Bills needed more stability in their coaching staff, having fired not one, not two, but three coaches during this dreadful 0-6 season. So they went and hired...Bob Winuvas from the San Diego Chargers?

...what?

In a stunning turn of events, calls were made to Coach Winuvas asking if he had interest in taking over the head coaching job. After looking over the roster and game plan set in place by the previous regimes, he agreed to take over after guiding the Chargers out of a dark place - 21 players under contract and 6 draft picks a day before the draft took place.

"San Diego is on way more solid ground than they were when I took over. That is all you can ask for. I wish Philip Rivers and that organization luck moving forward. They will be even better in another coach's hands. I know it," said Coach Winuvas during his introductory press conference.

The coach inherits a team in defensive transition, but solid on the offensive side of the ball. First overall pick Parker Austin at quarterback, along with talent such as LeSean "Shady" McCoy, Sammy Watkins, and Charles Clay helped with the decision.

"This offense is set up for great things if we can get the scheme in place to help them succeed. It might take the rest of this season, but we will get that scheme ready to play," Coach Winuvas said.

Coach Winuvas inherits an 0-6 squad with a favorable schedule down the stretch, as only 3 of their remaining 10 games are against teams with a winning record at this point of the season (the Seahawks are at .500 at the time of this writing). Did that play somewhat into the coach's decision?

"Honestly, no. I hadn't even looked at the schedule when I decided to take the job. What appealed to me was the talent," Coach Winuvas said when asked.

Bringing in a 4-3 defense for right now, Coach Winuvas has the ability to turn this into a 3-4 in the offseason should he choose to. But the question is - will he?

"We'll see when the offseason gets here. Trying not to put the cart before the horse."

Coach Winuvas has a steep climb. However, nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills.