Former Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone will reportedly take on a consultant role with the Houston Texans if he can’t land another head coaching job this offseason.
Once considered among the hottest head coaching prospects available, Doug Marrone’s stock has cooled some since initial reports indicated that he was the lead candidate for the New York Jets coaching vacancy. While it’s still safe to expect that at least one team will strongly consider Marrone for the job, it appears he’s already formed a contingency plan in case no one opts for a coach who went 15-17 in two years as coach of the Buffalo Bills, per ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.
If Doug Marrone does not land a head coach job, sources say he will have an offer to join close friend Bill O'Brien as a Texans consultant
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) January 10, 2015
It’s hard to believe that Marrone left Buffalo without a reasonable expectation that he’d find a new job, but it looks like he can scope out real estate in Houston if nothing else.
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Marrone has been nothing if not shrewd in his years of maneuvering to land a head coaching gig in the NFL. After reviving the moribund football program at Syracuse University, Marrone left when its quarterback, Ryan Nassib, declared for the draft. The coach saw his stock rise as high as it would for years at SU, and he snagged the opportunity to get out while he could.
Now it appears that Marrone has done the same thing in Buffalo, offering a perennial loser a rare winning season, then getting out while he retains peak value as a coach.
The Bills enjoyed their first winning season in a decade, but failed to make the playoffs for a 15th straight year. That didn’t deter the likes of Ian Rapoport from declaring Marrone as a shoo-in top candidate for any of the head coaching vacancies around the NFL after its annual Black Monday firings that created openings in Oakland, Atlanta, and San Francisco, as well as those created in New York and Buffalo.
Marrone deserves credit for not losing his mind watching EJ Manuel throw erratic passes for the better part of a season, but for little more. He was brought in as an offensive line guru and the Bills offensive line went from one of the best in the league in 2012 to an abysmal wreck in 2014. The defense was a top three unit under Jim Schwartz and stood as the driving force behind most of Buffalo’s wins, with the offense a hindrance more often than not.
While the quarterback situation in Buffalo is wretched, that fact shouldn’t suddenly vault Marrone into hallowed status. He was presented with difficulties that he failed to overcome and yet came out largely unscathed for it.
Perhaps that’s what more teams are realizing as the list of potential coaching candidates pares itself down in the eyes of those searching. That initial hesitance along with the pending availability of coordinators prepping for the later rounds of the NFL playoffs will likely push any decision as it pertains to Doug Marrone to at least Super Bowl week, if not later.
Regardless of what happens, Marrone appears to have a job that will keep him in the NFL, thanks to his buddy Bill O’Brien.
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