Let's not get carried away
It is undoubtedly a departure for the Bills to consider talking to a big-hitting head coaching candidate such as Mike Shanahan. The Bills have never paid one of the top salaries in the league for a head coach in the "modern" era of coaching salaries -- in the last 20 years.
But fans excited by the prospect of Shanahan should not get ahead of themselves. It's a long way from happening.
Besides his high salary, Shanahan was known for spending a lot of money on personnel in Denver. He did not hesitate to bring in a lot of veteran players at high salaries as stop-gap measures when the Broncos had to fill a gap in the lineup or had injuries. He was given a relative blank check on such matters by Denver owner Pat Bowlen. Denver signed aging pass rusher Simeon Rice to a one-year, $3 million deal at the start of the 2007 season. He never panned out. That's one example of Shanahan not worrying about cost in running the personnel side. That definitely has not been the Bills’ mode of operation. I could see Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. departing from his ways in hiring an expensive coach. But I don't see the Bills totally disregarding a cash-to-cap-type approach (even though there may not be a salary cap next year).
The widespread assumption around the NFL since Shanahan was fired last January was that his next landing spot would be with a big-market organization that has very deep pockets.
I still think that's going to wind up being the case.
---Mark Gaughan
