Report: Kyle Shanahan Requested by Bills for Interview

The Cleveland Browns didn’t have a playoff level season, and their offense struggled at time (some think this is an understatement). It hasn’t stopped the Buffalo Bills from requesting permission to interview Kyle Shanahan for their now vacant job:

The Bills are seeking a replacement for the offensively minded Doug Marrone, who opted out of his contract at the end of the season.

With Shanahan the Bills would be interviewing another offensive coach with experience in cold weather. Shanahan’s offense is uses the running game to setup the rest of the offense. Shanahan made Brian Hoyer look decent for the first half or so of last season. In Buffalo he would be tasked with figuring out if E.J. Manuel can be the starting guy or if they will need to go elsewhere to find their short and long term answer.

Irony could be that the Bills could go after Hoyer to be their short term starter.

The other irony is that the Bills lost their then defensive coordinator Mike Pettine to the Cleveland Browns last year, when the Browns hired him as their head coach. Pettine then brought Shanahan in as his offensive coordinator.

The Browns don’t seem to have a logical replacement for Shanny in their coaching staff and might have to go out of the organization to find one. That could cause problems for a team who built their offense around the Zone Blocking Scheme that the Shanahans have used for years.

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Kyle seems to need some more seasoning before he is ready to be a head coach. It will be interesting if Pettine, or Kyle’s father Mike Shanahan, share and express that concern. The Browns could deny the request, instead of Kyle having to turn down the offer to interview, in order to protect Shanahan.

The Browns offense was ranked 23rd in overall yardage including 20th in passing and 17th in rushing. The offense struggled after Alex Mack went down and even more as the league got tape on Brian Hoyer and got worse when Josh Gordon returned.

In Buffalo, Shanahan would have a top flight defense, a good young receiver in Sammy Watkins, a young developing offensive line and question marks at quarterback and running back (aging Fred Jackson can’t do it forever). A great defense is something to build on but does Shanahan want his first job to be without a starting level QB, depending on his thoughts on E.J.?

Kyle Shanahan will likely interview for the Bills job but odds are against him getting it at this point. Than again, anything can happen as Mike Pettine to the Browns last year proved.

What do you think of Kyle Shanahan as a HC candidate for the Bills? How hurt would the Browns be if he left?