BY NICK ST. DENIS
The Buffalo Bills want their offensive coordinator to just focus on being an offensive coordinator, and what a novel idea it is.
Buffalo is in the process of hiring a quarterbacks coach to work under Nathanial Hackett, who spent his first year as offensive coordinator in a double-duty role as the team's positional coach behind center.
Hackett's workload was heavy enough in 2013 by definition, but a quarterbacks room that was constantly in flux due to injuries both in the preseason and regular season made Hackett's job that much more taxing.
"Since I got here (last year) there have been nine quarterbacks in the building," Hackett said earlier this week, via BuffaloBills.com. "Even if you had a quarterback coach, that would be a lot for one individual man, let alone a quarterbacks-slash-coordinator."
Bills coach Doug Marrone recently voiced his confidence in Hackett being able to manage both but admitted that, in hindsight, it's not really practical.
Meanwhile, Marrone's young assistant is welcoming some help so he can focus on his primary gig, which will allow him to become more familiar with the rest of the offense.
". . . it’s going to help me do more from a coordinating standpoint," he said. "It’s going to mean more to have somebody with EJ even more and be right there for him. It’ll also allow me to branch out to the other positions and work more with the other players."
Hackett is working alongside the staff in the hiring process. He said the team isn't necessarily looking for someone who has a ton of professional experience at the position but rather someone who communicates well and fits in with the staff.
