MULARKEY, DONAHOE DONE IN BUFFALO?
A day after the Buffalo Bills pulled a collapse nearly as bad as the Houton Oilers against said Bills some 10-plus years ago, there is a growing buzz that owner Ralph Wilson will part ways with G.M. Tom Donahoe and coach Mike Mularkey after the current season.
Though Donahoe's name regularly has been mentioned of late as a target for termination, Mularkey was thought to be safe. Until Sunday.
The Bills held a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter, yet lost by one point to the Dolphins, who were led to victory by Sage Rosenfels after Gus Frerotte was knocked out in his own end zone.
The comeback was capped by a 73-yard drive, which started with 1:51 to play and no time outs for Miami. The go-ahead score came on a 4-yard pass to Chris Chambers, who despite previously catching 14 balls for 234 yards was covered by (gulp) Jabari Greer.
So the current conventional wisdom is that the 87-year-old Wilson will pull a Leon Hess, dumping both G.M. and coach and trying to put a winner together before Wilson gets called to the coach's office in the sky.
And if Donahoe goes, his successor could be assistant G.M. Tom Modrak, who had a big hand in building the Eagles before getting fired in 2001. Since then, Modrak has been with the Bills as an assistant to Donahoe, and Modrak allows the front office to maintain some continuity.
There's talk that Modrak could be joined by Bears director of pro personnel Bobby DePaul, and that the Bills then would look to Jim Haslett as the next head coach -- assuming that he doesn't get an extension with the Saints and that owner Tom Benson lets him out of the last year of his contract.
This is from PFT, so take it as you while.