Kurt Anderson

East Notes: Dolphins, Marrone, Bills, Jets

Here are some notes from the Eastern divisions as the playoffs begin.

  • Dan Campbell did not react well when told the Dolphins were hiring Adam Gase, Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald tweets. Although the interim coach who guided the Dolphins to a 5-7 mark, per Salguero (on Twitter), finished second to Gase after a “great” interview (Twitter link), the team will wait a few days before contacting him again after the way the 39-year-old coach took the news. Campbell’s future in the organization will be up to Gase, per Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald (via Twitter).
  • The Dolphins studied Tom Coughlin‘s work from this past season and had a long conversation about the viability of the 69-year-old coach but opted against (Twitter links, per Salguero).
  • Doug Marrone officially interviewed with the Giants today, Michael Eisen of Giants.com reports. The Jaguars assistant and former Bills coach is the fifth coach Big Blue’s visited with about the possibility of succeeding Tom Coughlin. That list will expand to six soon, with Mike Smith set to interview for the position. Thus far, however, Marrone and Steve Spagnuolo are the only former head coaches the Giants have interviewed, and neither enjoyed notable success. Spagnuolo went 10-38 in St. Louis, and Marrone went 15-17 with the Bills after guiding Syracuse to two winning seasons from 2009-12. The Jags new offensive assistant did help the team score 127 more points than it did in 2014, however.
  • Bills offensive line assistant coach Kurt Anderson will leave his Buffalo post after agreeing to become the offensive line coach at Arkansas, according to a FootballScoop.com report. A member of the Bills’ staff from 2013-15, Anderson served under both Marrone and Rex Ryan.
  • According to OverTheCap, the Bills are $373K+ over the projected salary cap. Although the official number for the 2016 cap hasn’t been released, the Bills likely won’t be big spenders during free agency, Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News reports. Skurski notes it’s a matter of if, not when in terms of Mario Williams‘ impending release. He also lists Corey Graham, Kyle Williams and Leodis McKelvin as potential salary cap casualties.
  • Re-signing Damon Harrison needs to be a priority for the Jets, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News writes. Mehta projects the Jets’ nose tackle’s AAV will be around $4MM-$5MM per year. The New York scribe also advises the Jets to rework D’Brickashaw Ferguson‘s contract, which will count $14.1MM against the ’16 cap at present. Considering Ferguson’s declining play, that’s an untenable number for Gang Green. The longtime left tackle has two years remaining on an eight-year, $73.6MM accord, and Mehta estimates the team will attempt to reduce his 2016 number by nearly $8MM.