Sammy Watkins Comments on Changes Next Bills Coach Must Make

The Buffalo Bills fired head coach Rex Ryan on Tuesday. On Thursday, star wide receiver Sammy Watkins identified several characteristics the next coach needs to have and instill into the Bills. 

One major change needed for the Bills? More discipline, as Watkins told Matthew Fairburn of NYup.com:

"

It's discipline. Whatever around the locker room that needs to be addressed, on the field, off the field, flags. Whether it's a running drill, whether it's something to work on a couple things we're not good at. And I think just being professional as players that's got to fix first. Then the coaches have to be hard on us, not scared of us. Get at us, yell at us, curse at us. Whatever to get the player to do that job the best he can, that's what they need to do.

"

Watkins, who called losing a culture—one he wasn't accustomed to after coming from a successful college career with the Clemson Tigers—spoke about the need for accountability:

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Well, from Clemson, coach Dabo [Swinney] was strict and I that's what I think changed the culture and changed the players. We started winning. We started to expect to win. Every game I came into I never thought I was going to lose it. That's what we have to do here. Situations here sometimes guys look at games with Peyton Manning or name-dropping Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown. Who cares? They're great players, but they do the same thing we do. We've got to step up as players against those guys.

"

Ryan has long had the reputation as a players' coach, and his teams were never known for being particularly disciplined. 

That approach might work in some locker rooms, but Ryan's 15-16 record in two seasons with the Bills—and his failure to reach the postseason—suggests it didn't work in Buffalo.

In Watkins, Buffalo's next head coach will have a talented option in the passing game, albeit one who hasn't lived up to the lofty expectations that followed being the No. 4 overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft. In three seasons, he's caught 149 passes for 2,428 yards and 17 touchdowns, as injuries have limited him. 

Still, the team has solid talent to build around, led by Watkins and LeSean McCoy on offense and Zach Brown, Preston Brown, Stephon Gilmore (if he doesn't leave in free agency) and Marcell Dareus on defense.

Regardless, the next coach will be tasked with facilitating a new culture in the organization, according to Watkins.

"That's something that we have to change whether us as players, the coaches, the organization, the mindsets of us, we've got to change," he noted. "We've got to think about the fans. Be all in. Whatever happens, we win the game. We come out on top. That's what we've got to do."

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