The list of Bills head coaching candidates is growing longer.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that they have requested an interview with Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski. He joins Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, former Giants head coach Brian Daboll, and Commanders running backs coach/run game coordinator Anthony Lynn on the early list in Buffalo.
Udinski is also scheduled for a second interview with the Browns this week. Cleveland is the only team that Udinski has interviewed with at this point in the cycle.
Udinski was a Vikings assistant for three years before joining Liam Coen’s staff in Jacksonville for the 2025 season. He was also a coaching assistant for the Panthers for two seasons.
If former Bills coach Sean McDermott had concerns about the talent on the Buffalo roster, he kept it to himself. For the most part.
After the division-round loss to the Broncos, McDermott focused on the fateful decision (without replay review) to transform a key catch by receiver Brandin Cooks into an interception by cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian. McDermott continued his commentary on the ruling and the handling of it by calling Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News from the team plane back to New York.
Cooks was a post-trade deadline acquisition the Bills made after a failed effort by the Saints to make his contract less attractive on waivers. The Bills were one of the teams believed to be lurking for Cooks in free agency, if no one submitted a waivers claim.
McDermott may have been eyeing another in-season acquisition at receiver: Jakobi Meyers. The Bills had been linked to Meyers before he was traded to the Jaguars. And, in the days preceding Buffalo’s wild-card game at Jacksonville, McDermott made a comment that went largely unnoticed at the time.
“Well, I thought one of the moves that’s made, you know, a difference for them offensively is adding Jakobi Meyers,” McDermott said, via Alex Brasky of SI.com. “Good pickup for them. Probably a guy that’s, quite honestly, been undervalued in his career, but going against him in New England, ton of respect for his game.”
Brasky viewed the comments after they were made as a “veiled shot” at G.M. Brandon Beane for failing to close the deal for Meyers.
McDermott’s privately-communicated concerns about the quality of the roster also put the decision to make 2024 second-round receiver Keon Coleman a healthy scratch for multiple games after the trade deadline in a different light. Most assumed McDermott and Beane were on the same page regarding the need to not put Coleman in uniform for multiple games. Maybe they weren’t.
The Jaguars weren’t the only team to make an impactful deadline deal at receiver. The Seahawks picked up Rashid Shaheed from the Saints — and Shaheed had a direct hand in helping Seattle secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC with a game-altering punt return against the Rams in Week 16 and a tone-setting kick return for a touchdown to start Saturday’s playoff win over the 49ers. Maybe the Bills targeted the wrong Saints receiver.
For his part, Beane seems to have contempt for the trend toward trades for young General Managers, deriding it last January as “fantasy football.”
The reality for the Bills is that McDermott took the fall for the failure of the team to achieve the fanbase’s longstanding fantasy to win a Super Bowl. And it places under an electron microscope all moves made and not made by the Bills in the offseason (and during the 2026 regular season) to put more weapons around quarterback Josh Allen.
Mike McDaniel won’t be the Browns’ next head coach, as McDaniel withdrew from the search on Tuesday. But the Browns are getting closer to hiring a replacement for Kevin Stefanski.
Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter will interview with the Browns on Thursday, Albert Breer of MMQB reports, with Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski interviewing on Friday.
The Browns talked with their own defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz, on Monday and Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken on Tuesday.
Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase also remains in the mix in Cleveland.
The Jaguars’ recent home playoff loss to the Bills had an official attendance of 70,250. If the Jaguars host a playoff game next season, there will be far fewer fans present — and not because the team will have reverted to the days of tarps on the upper deck.
Via Garry Smits of the Florida Times-Union, $1.4 billion in upgrades to EverBank Stadium will limit capacity in 2026 to 43,000 fans.
Only the lower bowl at the stadium will be open. And, as Smits explains it, the cabanas and the pool in the stadium likely will be closed for all of 2026, too.
The ongoing work will require the Jaguars to play elsewhere in 2027, with Orlando’s Camping World Stadium the likely (but not yet official) location.
And so the Jaguars won’t return to a complete home-field advantage until 2028, when the fully-renovated Everbank Stadium opens its doors.
Until the next time it’s renovated, that is.
The Ravens will add another head coaching candidate to the list on Monday.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile will interview with the team. He is the 16th candidate to meet with the team since they fired John Harbaugh earlier this month.
Campanile has also interviewed for the Dolphins’ head coaching job. He just completed his first season running the defense in Jacksonville and has also worked for the Packers and Dolphins during his time as an NFL assistant.
Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta said he expected to meet with around 16 coaches in the team’s first round of interviews, so the search process may be moving into its next stage in the near future.
