Buffalo Bills Name Nathaniel Hackett Offensive Coordinator & Other AFC East News

The Buffalo Bills have begun the rebuilding process anew with head coach Doug Marrone.

The first thing on his agenda is to assemble his coaching staff, and his actions are already speaking louder than his words in that regard.

According to a report from Tim Graham of The Buffalo News, Nathaniel Hackett will be the Bills' next offensive coordinator:

"

Nathaniel Hackett will be the Bills' next offensive coordinator.

— Tim Graham (@ByTimGraham) January 9, 2013"

Marrone emphasized the importance of NFL experience in his coaching staff, saying, "with the coordinators, we want people that have thorough NFL experience...This is a very, very difficult job, being an NFL coach."

Hackett only has marginal NFL experience, having served four years as offensive quality control—two years with the Buccaneers from 2006-'07 and two years with the Bills from '08-'09.

Marrone is intimately familiar with Hackett, though, as the two worked together for the past three seasons at Syracuse, with Hackett serving as the quarterbacks coach in 2010 and the offensive coordinator in 2011-'12 (along with several other hats mixed in).

Here's some more news from around the AFC East.

New England Patriots

Dan Begnoche of AFC East Daily points out that the Patriots must be cognizant of a few names that were not on the field in the previous meeting with the Texans: namely, Brooks Reed and Garrett Graham.

Bleacher Report Patriots featured columnist Mike Dussault plays "sign, tag, walk" with the Patriots' biggest free agents this offseason.

Matt Bowen of NationalFootballPost.com breaks down the Patriots' play-action pass attack on offense and asks if the Texans are ready for it.

New York Jets

Chris Gross of TurnOnTheJets.com delivers his Jets draft big board v. 1.0.

B/R featured columnist Zach Kruse lists the five best candidates to take over as offensive coordinator with the departure of Tony Sparano.

Buffalo Bills

B/R Bills featured columnist Chris Trapasso says Bills head coach Doug Marrone must figure out the Bills' messy quarterback situation as soon as possible.

According to Mark Gaughan of The Buffalo News, the San Diego Chargers had legitimate interest in Marrone.

Miami Dolphins

Daniel Eliesen of PhinsPhocus.com takes an early look at some potential Dolphins draft choices.

B/R Dolphins featured columnist Devin Noonan lists the best free agent fit at every position for the Dolphins.

Erik Frenz is the AFC East lead blogger for Bleacher Report. Be sure to follow Erik on Twitter and "like" the AFC East blog on Facebook to keep up with all the updates. Unless specified otherwise, all quotes are obtained firsthand or via team press releases.