Breaking news: The Buffalo Bills reportedly stripped of the responsibilities of the head coach

The strength coach was reportedly stripped of his responsibilities by the Bills.

Ryan O’Halloran of The Buffalo News was the first to disclose that Eric Ciano, the head coach of strength and conditioning for the Buffalo Bills, was leaving the team. Ciano had been the Bills’ strength coach since 2013, which was longer than Sean McDermott’s time as head coach. It appears, though, that the organization is not happy with the effort done this season in the strength room.

With players on the Injured Reserve or Physically Unable to Play list, the Bills had the least amount of money of any NFL team—an estimated $3.9 million. However, it appears that the issue could have been the incapacity to help players return to their playing form and/or to help young players build their strength.

General manager Brandon Beane stated at his season-ending news conference that he needed tight end Dalton Kincaid to increase his durability. Kincaid missed the next three games for a total of four weeks after hurting his knee against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 10 (the Bills had a Week 12 bye).

Rookies Keon Coleman and DeWayne Carter are two more noteworthy players that had difficulty recovering from injuries this season. The Bills decided against placing Coleman on injured reserve after he sustained an injury in the closing minutes of Week 9. A bye week in the middle of the rookie wide receiver’s recuperation time, however, helped him return to action after five weeks. Beane said that serious talks occurred at the rookie’s first season exit interview and that he was not the same player after the injury as he had been previously.

Carter had to have surgery for a wrist issue that did send him on IR. It wasn’t until Week 14 that Carter was added back to the active roster after suffering an injury in Week 7. In his first two games back, Carter’s snap counts fell from shares in the 40–50 percentile range to 31 and 21. Buffalo was resting starters as the season drew to a close, but he received increased action in the Bills’ last two games. Carter was actually listed as healthy-scratch for Week 16.

In the four games before to his injury, the rookie was making waves, averaging three tackles per game. However, he didn’t record another tackle until Week 18, when he played 89 percent of the snaps while Ed Oliver was out recovering for the postseason.

Due to the same issue, linebacker Baylon Spector was placed on injured leave twice this season. Spector has really battled injuries throughout a significant amount of his three NFL seasons. It was a calf injury this season. A player’s 21-day practice window is often used up, if not completely, by Buffalo when they are coming off injured reserve. However, after only three days of practice, Spector was hurried back on the field. After that, he turned into a problem since the Bills had to rely on him after injuries to Matt Milano, Terrel Bernard, and Dorian Williams occurred during his comeback game. A week later, Spector was placed back on IR because his calf was unable to hold.