Bills tab Steelers' Mularkey as next head coach

By Don Banks, SI.com

The Buffalo Bills have hired Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey as their new head coach, a source close to the situation said Wednesday afternoon.

Since Monday night, all indications coming out of Buffalo continued to point toward Mularkey becoming the Bills next head coach. But team officials and sources in Mularkey's camp said the final stages of contract negotiations continued until Wednesday afternoon.

The Bills will introduce Mularkey at 4 p.m. Thursday at their Orchard Park, N.Y., team complex.

Mularkey traveled to Detroit on Tuesday for another interview with Bills owner Ralph Wilson, and the team offered Mularkey the job Tuesday evening. Mularkey's agent, Eric Metz, was involved in contract negotiations with Bills team president Tom Donahoe Tuesday night, and again Wednesday.

Donahoe and Mularkey had been in contact by phone in recent days as the stages beyond the initial interview process unfolded. The two spoke Monday, and again Tuesday, sources said.

Mularkey was not summoned back to Buffalo for his second face-to-face interview with Donahoe, but went instead to Detroit, where Wilson has his office. That was seen as the final step before Mularkey was offered the job as Gregg Williams' replacement.

Under Mularkey, the Steelers' offense ranked in the top five for two of the last three seasons. The Steelers slipped to 22nd this season.

After having one of the best offenses in 2002, the Bills ranked 30th this season.

Buffalo finished 3-13, 8-8 and 6-10 in Williams' three seasons.

This season, Buffalo had 4,348 yards in offense, seven better than the franchise-low, and managed 243 points, the second-fewest in a 16-game season. The Bills also went seven games without scoring a touchdown.

Drew Bledsoe threw for just 11 touchdowns, his fewest since the 2001 season when he played in just two games, and most of the blame fell on the offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, who handled the play calling.

Mularkey replaced Gilbride in Pittsburgh, and no decision has been announced on whether Gilbride will remain on the staff.

Mularkey and Donahoe had at least four discussions about the Bills job, and Mularkey spoke with Wilson twice. Mularkey interviewed for the job last Wednesday in Buffalo, and he and Donahoe continued the interview on the phone Friday.

While New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and ex-Chicago Bears head coach Dick Jauron were considered the other two strong candidates among the seven that Donahoe interviewed the past two weeks, Mularkey has been steadily gaining momentum in the process and he started emerging as the front-runner over the weekend.

Some league sources said Tuesday that Donahoe has continued to express a desire to hold off on offering the job to anyone, apparently in order to wait for Weis' availability. If New England wins Sunday's AFC title game against Indianapolis, the Bills would have to wait until Feb. 2 -- almost three more weeks -- to hire Weis.

The timing involved with Weis worked against his chances, as did the question of whether he and Bledsoe have a strained relationship dating to the end of the quarterback's tenure with New England in 2001.

All things being equal, Donahoe had said he wanted to hire someone with previous NFL head coaching experience after choosing Williams, the former Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator, as Buffalo's head coach three years ago. Williams was fired Dec. 29 after missing the playoffs in each of this three seasons.

Thus, Jauron had seemed to be in the driver's seat in Buffalo. But with the Bills' offensive struggles this year, especially at quarterback with Bledsoe, Donahoe was thought to be seeking an offensive-minded head coach. Mularkey and Weis have no previous head coaching experience, and the Bills lost interest in former New York Giants head coach Jim Fassel shortly after they interviewed him last week.

Mularkey, 42, is thought of as one of the game's best young offensive minds. Besides the Bills, he interviewed for Atlanta's head coaching job this offseason, and last weekend turned down a chance to interview for Oakland's vacancy. Part of the reason Mularkey did not show interest in meeting with the Raiders is that he considered the Buffalo situation very promising and did not want to send the Bills any mixed signals with the process this far along.

Mularkey the past two offseasons has interviewed for head coaching jobs in Tampa Bay (2002) and Cincinnati (2003).

Mularkey and Donahoe are familiar with one another stemming from their days working together in Pittsburgh. Steelers head coach Bill Cowher hired Mularkey as tight ends coach in 1996, while Donahoe was the team's general manager

One key factor in Mularkey's favor with Buffalo was that he will hire well-respected former Giants offensive line coach Jim McNally to his Bills staff. With Buffalo's offensive problems stemming from its failure to protect Bledsoe this season, McNally's reputation for cobbling together a quality offensive line was deemed very attractive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.