Orchard Park, NY (WGR 550) -- When the Buffalo Bills unveiled their staff via press release, there was one position that the Bills elected to hire two men to help run. With the announcement, both Chuck Driesbach and Jim O'Neil have been designated as linebackers coaches.
So what exactly does that mean?
Well, in the two years that the Bills ran the 3-4 (2010-2011), the team employed a pair of linebackers coaches. Both years, Bob Sanders served as the team's outside linebackers coach. In 2010, DeMontie Cross was the team's inside linebackers coach while Dave Wannstedt assumed that role in 2011.
Is it an unprecedented thing for a team that runs the 4-3 to have two linebackers coaches? Do most 3-4 teams have two linebackers coaches?
Based off coaching staffs from 2012, having two coaches at that position is not all that common. In fact, only four teams employed a pair of linebackers coaches.
That group consisted of the New York Jets (Mike Smith and Bob Sutton), the Baltimore Ravens (Don Martindale and Ted Monachino), the Green Bay Packers (Winston Moss and Kevin Green) and the Minnesota Vikings (Fred Pagac and Mike Singletary).
You can throw the Indianapolis Colts in that mix if you want to include defensive coordinator Greg Manusky as a linebackers coach (to which he is credited) along with normal linebackers coach Jeff Fitzgerald.
So of those five teams, four operate out of the base of a 3-4 defensive scheme.
Now, the Ravens and Jets both used multiple-front looks over the course of the season. They still both have a true nose tackle on their roster that they use in their starting lineups, however.
The lone 4-3 team with two linebackers coaches, the Minnesota Vikings, may have gotten to that point because they didn't want to eliminate former defensive coordinator Fred Pagac entirely. In 2011, Pagac's last year in charge of the Vikings' defense, Mike Singletary was the lone linebackers coach in Minnesota.
What the Bills will do with their defense under Mike Pettine has yet to be determined, but the defensive staff will meet with the media on Friday for the first time.
