Bills Add John Fox To Coaching Staff

A little over two weeks after promoting Joe Brady from offensive coordinator to head coach, the Bills announced their 2026 staff on Friday. While most of the staff was previously reported, the hiring of John Fox as a senior assistant counts as the most interesting new development from Buffalo’s announcement.

Fox last worked as a senior defensive assistant in Detroit in 2023. He’ll now return to coaching after a two-year layoff.

An NFL coach since 1989, Fox is best known for his HC tenures with the Panthers (2002-10), Broncos (2011-14) and Bears (2015-17). Fox combined for a 133-123 record in the regular season and an 8-7 mark in the playoffs. He guided the Panthers and Broncos to one Super Bowl appearance apiece, but his teams went 0-2 in those games.

Fox had his most success in Denver, where he posted an excellent 46-18 record in the regular season. However, the Broncos’ inability to finish the job in the playoffs when Peyton Manning was still playing at an otherworldly level led the team to go in another direction in January 2015.

Eleven years later, Fox will provide an experienced aide for Brady, a rookie head coach. Like Fox’s run with the Broncos, former Bills head coach Sean McDermott couldn’t get over the playoff hump despite benefiting from a superstar QB (Josh Allen). After the Bills lost to the Broncos in last month’s divisional round, owner Terry Pegula decided the team had “hit a playoff wall” under McDermott.

Although McDermott coached the Bills to eight playoff appearances in nine years and an overall 106-58 record, he went a Fox-like 8-8 in the postseason. The Bills never got past the AFC title game during his tenure.

Brady will retain several of McDermott’s former assistants, including tight ends coach Rob Boras. In his 10th season with the Bills, Boras will add run-game coordinator to his responsibilities. In further adjustments from Brady, Joe Danna will shift from safeties coach to secondary coach; Jason Rebrovich will go from assistant defensive line coach to senior defensive assistant; and Kyle Shurmur will jump from quality control to assistant QBs coach.

Bills Hire DL Coach Terrance Jamison

The Bills are set to hire Illinois co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Terrance Jamison as their DL coach, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. Jamison will replace Marcus West, who joined the Buccaneers in the same role last week.

Like new Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, Jamison played college football at Wisconsin. Their careers with the Badgers didn’t overlap, but they were on the Illinois coaching staff together in 2023. Leonhard left after one season to join the Broncos’ staff.

An assistant at a handful of colleges since 2008, Jamison coached Bengals star pass rusher and soon-to-be free agent Trey Hendrickson at Florida Atlantic from 2014-16.

More recently, Jamison spent the past half-decade at Illinois. The 38-year-old helped develop defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton, now with the Commanders, into a 2024 second-round pick. Jamison also assisted with edge rusher Gabe Jacas‘ 11-sack effort in 2025. After earning first-team All-Big Ten honors, Jacas could come off the board sometime in the first few rounds of April’s draft.

Now heading to Buffalo for his first job in the pros, Jamison will work on a staff that will likely implement a 3-4 base defense in 2026. The Bills ran a four-man front under former head coach Sean McDermott and ex-defensive coordinator Bobby Babich.

Jamison stands to inherit linemen Greg Rousseau, Ed Oliver, Deone Walker and T.J. Sanders, though it’s not yet clear if Leonhard regards all of those players as fits for his scheme. Meanwhile, after combining for upward of 1,400 snaps in 2025, Joey Bosa, A.J. Epenesa and DaQuan Jones are scheduled to reach the open market in March. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see all three walk in free agency.

Elsewhere on the Bills’ staff, rookie head coach Joe Brady will retain several of McDermott’s former assistants, per Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic. Kelly Skipper (running backs), Rob Boras (tight ends), Austin Gund (assistant offensive line), DJ Mangas (quality control/assistant wide receivers coach), Mark Lubick (passing game specialist/game management) and Kyle Shurmur (offensive quality control) will return in 2026. Brady, the Bills’ offensive coordinator before they promoted him to replace McDermott, is already familiar with all of those coaches.

Coaching Notes: Ravens, Colts, Bills, Browns

Ken Norton Jr. is heading to the NCAA. The long-time coach is expected to join UCLA as their new linebackers coach, reports Bruce Feldman of The Athletic (via Twitter).

Norton Jr. started his coaching career with USC, but he’s been in the NFL since 2010. After winning three Super Bowl rings as a player, Norton Jr. added another championship to his resume as the Seahawks linebackers coach. After five seasons in Seattle, Norton Jr. was defensive coordinator for three years with the Raiders and four years with the Seahawks (second stint).

Norton Jr. was let go by Seattle following the 2021 campaign. Now, he’ll be joining Chip Kelly’s staff in Los Angeles.

More coaching notes:

  • The Ravens announced that they’ve officially promoted Anthony Weaver to be their assistant head coach/defensive line coach. Weaver had a long coaching stint with the Texans, culminating in him serving as their defensive coordinator in 2020. The 41-year-old joined the Ravens last year as their defensive line coach/run game coordinator.
  • Former NFL safety Mike Mitchell is joining the Colts staff as an assistant secondary coach, according to Stephen Holder of The Athletic (on Twitter). Mitchell had a 10-year playing career, including a one-year stint with Indianapolis. The Colts are also hiring Nate Ollie as their defensive line coach, per Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com (via Twitter). Following two seasons with the Eagles, Ollie spent last season as the Jets assistant defensive line coach.
  • Bills secondary coach John Butler got a promotion, adding the role of defensive passing game coordinator to his title, according to Wilson. The veteran has spent the past four seasons as the secondary coach in Buffalo. The Bills also confirmed a number of additional hires, including Kyle Shurmur (defensive quality control coach), Nick Lacy (strength and conditioning assistant coach), Marcus West (assistant defensive line coach), Jaylon Finner (defensive quality control coach), Cory Harkey (assistant special teams coach), and Austin Gund (fellowship coach).
  • The Browns are expected to promote offensive assistant T.C. McCartney to tight ends coach, according to Wilson (on Twitter). The 32-year-old has bounced around the NFL a bit during his coaching journey. After spending the 2019 campaign as the Broncos quarterbacks coach, McCartney spent the 2020 season as an offensive assistant on the Browns.

AFC Coaching Notes: Colts, Bills, Jaguars, Ravens

Since Frank Reich was able to land defensive coordinator Gus Bradley to replace Bears’ head coach Matt Eberflus, Bradley has begun the process of putting his staff together. Today Bradley added longtime defensive backs coach Ron Milus to coach his secondary, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. Milus first started coaching defensive backs at his alma mater, the University of Washington, about eight years after playing cornerback there. He held the college position for seven years before getting an NFL coaching opportunity in 2000. Since then, Milus hasn’t spent a season out of work with stints in Denver, Arizona, New York (Giants), St. Louis, Carolina, San Diego, and Las Vegas. His longest stint was with the Chargers, spending eight years in southern California and transitioning with the team to Los Angeles. It was in Los Angeles that Milus was retained when Bradley joined the Chargers’ staff. He followed Bradley to Las Vegas and will join him once more in Indianapolis.

Here are a few other coaching notes from around the AFC starting with another bit from the Hoosier State:

  • In addition to Milus, Mike Chappell of Fox59 reports that Indianapolis is also in the process of hiring linebackers coach Richard Smith, who worked with Bradley and Milus in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Smith has coached in the NFL since he debuted for the Houston Oilers in 1988 coaching special teams and tight ends. He found his niche as a linebackers coach in 1997 for the 49ers and has had three short stints as a defensive coordinator in Miami, Houston, and Atlanta.
  • ESPN’s Yates also tweeted out a report that the Bills have added former QB Kyle Shurmur on staff in a defensive quality control position. After four years at Vanderbilt, Shurmur signed as an undrafted free agent with the Chiefs, spending time on their practice squad as well as on the Bengals’ and Washington’s practice squads. He was released by Washington a little over a month ago and that appears to mark the end of his playing career. He seems to be following in the footsteps of his father, Pat Shurmur, and joining the coaching track.
  • A castaway from the Matt Nagy Bears’ staff, outside linebackers coach Bill Shuey will not be without work for long as Curtis Crabtree of NBC Sports reports that Shuey is joining Doug Pederson‘s staff in Jacksonville in the same role. Shuey and Pederson had two separate tenures together in Philadelphia.
  • Pederson also made a crucial move of retaining running backs coach Bernie Parmalee. Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network tells us that keeping Parmalee was a priority for Pederson, especially due to his strong relationship with star running back James Robinson.
  • Baltimore has hired Rob Leonard as outside linebackers coach, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley (Twitter). Leonard will replace Drew Wilkins who left to join Brian Daboll‘s staff in New York. Leonard spent the past three seasons in the same position with the Dolphins. Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic adds that former Michigan analyst Ryan Osborn will follow Mike Macdonald to the Ravens for a quality control position. Osborn is credited with having a role in the development of Wolverines’ EDGE players like Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 1/5/22

Today’s taxi squad moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

NFL COVID-19 List Updates: 12/30/21

Here are Thursday’s reserve/COVID-19 list updates:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

  • Activated from virus list: OL Cody Ford, CB Cam Lewis
  • Activated from practice squad virus list: TE Quintin Morris

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

  • Placed on practice squad virus list: LB Omari Cobb

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

WFT To Start Garrett Gilbert 

It’s now official. On Tuesday, the Washington Football Team announced that quarterbacks Taylor Heinicke and Kyle Allen were unable to test out of COVID-19 protocols. With that, journeyman Garrett Gilbert will start tonight against the Eagles.

Gilbert, recently signed off of the Patriots’ taxi squad, started for the Cowboys last year in a Week 9 loss to the Steelers. Filling in for Dak Prescott (injured) and Andy Dalton (on the COVID list), Gilbert went 21-of-38 for 243 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. It wasn’t a particularly memorable performance, but it was at least better than what the Cowboys were getting out of Ben DiNucci.

The 30-year-old passer has dressed for just seven games in his NFL career. This will be his biggest one yet as Washington fights for a playoff spot. A win tonight would give them a 43% chance of qualifying; a loss would require them to win out and get extremely lucky.

Washington has been able to activate a couple of its players for tonight’s game — cornerback Troy Apke and defensive tackle Tim Settle. Beyond that, they’ll elevate four practice squaders: fullback Alex Armah, linebacker De’Jon Harris, tackle David Steinmetz, and quarterback Kyle Shurmur, who will serve as the QB2 behind Gilbert.

Minor NFL Transactions:  12/21/21

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawk

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Football Team

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/13/21

We’ll keep track of today’s practice squad moves here:

Carolina Panthers

Dallas Cowboys

Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Football Team

Shurmur will give WFT another option as Ryan Fitzpatrick recovers from his hip injury. For now, this likely means that Taylor Heinicke will serve as their starter. Heinicke stepped in for Fitz against the Chargers on Sunday, completing 11-for-15 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown.

Bengals Down To 53

The Bengals are in the books. With less than an hour before the deadline, the Bengals announced a series of roster cuts to take them down to 53. Here’s the full rundown:

Placed on Reserve/Non-Football Injury list:

Placed on Reserve/Injured list:

Released:

Waived:

For now, this leaves the Bengals with seven wide receivers on the roster: Ja’Marr ChaseTyler Boyd, Mike Thomas, Auden Tate, Stanley Morgan Jr., Tee Higgins, and Trenton Irwin. Meanwhile, they’re down a couple starters from last year in Michael Jordan and Mike Daniels.

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