BY NICK ST. DENIS
New Buffalo Bills wide receivers coach Rob Moore has the on-field credentials: 10 years in the NFL, 628 receptions, 49 touchdowns, two Pro Bowl nods and a first-team All-Pro honor.
But it will take a lot more than his resume for Moore to earn respect from his young and eager group of wideouts. Moore is up to the task.
"I have to establish a relationship with them so they know who I am as a coach," Moore recently told BuffaloBills.com. "At this level it’s not enough to have played in the league.
"These guys want to know that you’re going to be able to teach them some things that they don’t know and make them better players."
He takes over a group led by veteran Stevie Johnson, though the next
three wideouts on the depth chart in Robert Woods, Marquise Goodwin and
T.J. Graham average under 23 years old.
Moore comes to Buffalo having coached receivers at Syracuse University the past four years, so he's very familiar with the system coach Doug Marrone and offensive coordinator Nate Hackett -- both of whom Moore worked under in recent years -- are running.
That, combined with everything he absorbed playing for two different teams (New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals) and under a handful of coaches, makes him feel prepared to take on the task of coaching pros.
"I think one of the benefits I had throughout my career is I played in a lot of different systems, different quarterbacks who had different strengths and weaknesses,: he said. "I had to overcome some of my own weaknesses as a young player and develop. So I understand some of the highs and lows and what they can do to a young receiver.
". . . Having played with guys like Art Monk and Al Toon and train with other great players I have a pretty good fundamental idea as to how to develop these guys.”
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