Bills Fire Coach Jim Salgado; What's Next?

The Buffalo Bills made their first significant coaching change of the offseason on Thursday.

The Buffalo Bills have fired safeties coach Jim Salgado, per reports Thursday from ESPN.

Salgado spent six seasons with the Bills since arriving in 2017 and had just completed his first as the safeties coach. His first three seasons in Orchard Park were spent as a defensive assistant before he was promoted to nickels coach in 2020.

Salgado spent ample time coaching in the Ivy League, as he served as Princeton's defensive coordinator from 2010 to 2016 after one season as an assistant coach at Cornell in 2009.

Prior to that, he spent four seasons as the defensive backs coach with the Syracuse Orange.

However, despite all this experience, the Bills saw it best to move on from Salgado. Buffalo's pass defense was middling this past season, as the Bills allowed the 15th-fewest passing yards per game (214.6). While this average wasn't horrible, it was hardly up to the standard the secondary set for itself in 2021 when Buffalo allowed the fewest passing yards per game by a wide margin (163).

So, what's next?

It's unclear who the Bills will to look to hire as his replacement, but the secondary as a whole is surrounded with question marks entering the offseason.

Safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde will be 32 and 31, respectively, when the 2023 season begins. Both sustained significant injuries this season and will be hard to rely on as future pieces of the defense.

Even with Poyer in the lineup in Sunday's 27-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Divisional, the Bills defense got shredded early, allowing the Bengals to salt away at the clock in the second half while holding a comfortable lead.

Salgado's firing could be the first of many coaching departures for the Bills as the offseason officially gets underway.

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You can follow Zach Dimmitt on Twitter at @ZachDimmitt7

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