Brian Daboll Named Bills Offensive Coordinator, Leaves Alabama

Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has left to take the same position with the Buffalo Bills, the Bills announced Sunday.

The Bills fired Rick Dennison on Friday after the team scored three points and amassed 263 yards of offense in an AFC Wild Card Round defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"We are excited to hire Brian as our offensive coordinator and welcome him back to western New York," Bills head coach Sean McDermott said in a statement. "I know how much this area means to him. He is a good coach and a good teacher and has been a part of winning programs in the NFL and in college."

Daboll inherits a unit that was 29th in yards (302.6 per game), 22nd in scoring (18.9 points per game) and 26th in overall efficiency, according to Football Outsiders.

Bills general manager Brandon Beane was blunt about the team's need to get better across the board, per ESPN.com's Mike Rodak:

"We're not satisfied with the whole offense, and it wasn't just about [quarterback] Tyrod [Taylor]. "There's a lot of hands in the cookie jar, so to speak. [coach] Sean [McDermott] and I, we're going to talk about everything. We know we have to get better on offense, on defense, on special teams. We are far from a finished product."

Daboll's first job will likely be having some input on the Bills' quarterback situation.

While Taylor helped get the Bills to their first postseason since 1999, it wasn't that long ago the team benched him for fifth-round draft pick Nathan Peterman.

By cutting Taylor, the Bills would still have $8.64 million count against the salary cap, but they'd also save $9.44 million, according to Over the Cap. If the team has any doubts about Taylor continuing to be the starting option, now is the time to go in a different direction.

Jake Delhomme played under Daboll for the Cleveland Browns in 2010 and described the coach as a "great teacher" and "a fantastic X-and-O football coach," per AL.com's Rainer Sabin.

"I was lucky enough to have a pretty good background after playing for a while," Delhomme said. "But there were still many things I learned from him, the nuances of a defense and things that I thought were fantastic."

In that respect, Daboll could be a good fit if the Bills want to target a quarterback early in the 2018 draft.

While the Crimson Tide are coming off a national championship and now moving on to their fourth offensive coordinator in a little over a calendar year, Alabama may not be heartbroken over Daboll's departure.

Jalen Hurts regressed as a sophomore after excelling as a freshman when Lane Kiffin was the offensive coordinator. That, in turn, had a domino effect for the rest of the offense.

According to Football Outsiders, the Tide were ninth in S&P+ offense in 2016 and slipped to 23rd this past season.

As much as Nick Saban loves a more pro-style offense, embracing the spread may be the better route with his next offensive coordinator, especially with another mobile quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, the early favorite to be the starter in 2018.