The Bills are reported to have relieved the strength coach of his duties.
The Buffalo Bills are parting ways with head strength and conditioning coach Eric Ciano as first reported by Ryan O’Halloran of The Buffalo News. Ciano had been the Bills’ strength coach for longer than Sean McDermott has been the head coach with his tenure dating back to 2013. However, it would seem that the organization is not pleased with the work that has been done in the strength room this season.
The Bills had the least amount of money, an estimated $3.9 million, locked up in players that were on the Injured Reserve or Physically Unable to Play list of any NFL team. But it seems that the problem may have stemmed from the inability to get players back to playing form, and/or the inability to develop the strength of young players.
In his season-ending press conference, general manager Brandon Beane, mentioned that he needed tight end Dalton Kincaid to improve his durability. Kincaid injured his knee in Week 10 against the Indianapolis Colts and then missed the next three games over a total of four weeks (the Bills had a Week 12 bye).
Other notable players that struggled to return post-injury this season include rookies Keon Coleman and DeWayne Carter. Coleman was injured in the final minutes of Week 9, and the Bills opted to not place him on injured reserve. However, it took the rookie wide receiver five weeks to return to play – again aided by a bye week in the middle of his recovery period. Beane also mentioned that he was not the same player post injury that he was before and that serious conversations took place during the rookie’s first season exit interview.
Carter suffered a wrist injury that did send him to IR due to the need for surgery. Carter’s injury came in Week 7, but he was not added back to the active roster until Week 14. When he did return, Carter’s snap counts dropped from shares in the 40-50 percentile range to 31 and 21 in his first two games back. While he saw more snaps in the Bills final two games, Buffalo was resting starters as the season came to an end. In fact, Carter was on the healthy-scratch list for Week 16. The rookie had been making waves, averaging 3 tackles a game in the four games leading up to his injury but didn’t make another tackle until Week 18 when he played 89 percent of the snaps while Ed Oliver was on the sideline resting up for the post season.
Linebacker Baylon Spector spent two stints on IR this season – both for the same injury. In fact, Spector has spent a good portion of his three seasons in the NFL battling injuries. This season it was a calf injury. Buffalo is usually known for using up a lot, if not all, of a player’s 21-day practice window when they are coming off Injured Reserve. But with Spector, he was rushed back to the field after just three days of practice. He then became a liability as the Bills had to depend on him as Terrel Bernard, Dorian Williams, and Matt Milano all suffered injuries in his return game. Spector’s calf couldn’t hold, and he ended up back on IR a week later. While he’s not a key component of the Bills’ roster, having your depth players unavailable and is a problem. And soft tissue injuries would be a direct responsibility of the strength coaching staff.
Other indications that change may have been needed, could come from the lack of size and strength being built along the defensive line, Von Miller’s lack of impact in his return, and even the fact that James Cook isn’t building enough strength to be an effective pass blocker. Sure, all of that could come down to player inabilities or position coaching, but it’s multiple pieces that aren’t getting the results they need from the strength room.
None of this is to say Ciano’s not good at his job – that of helping players rehab through injuries and getting them into playing condition, but rather maybe just not the right man for the job in Buffalo. On the 2024 NFLPA player survey, Bills players gave the strength coaching staff a letter grade of A and the training staff a B, stating that they felt they did a good job, there just weren’t enough of them to go around. In March 2020, Ciano was named Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by his peers based on his work during the 2019 season.
However, the Bills have had their share of injuries over the past several seasons. Is that the fault of coaches asking small players to play big roles? Is it the fault of game planning and scheming? Is it players feeling they need to prove themselves on every down? Or is it a strength and conditioning program that is not helping them build durability? It looks like the McDermott has made a decision on where he wants to seek a change in hopes of creating a stronger team that is ready for the brutality of a long season.