ClutchPoints
The Buffalo Bills have begun their process of making tweaks to their coaching staff, having fired special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley. And they didn’t have to wait long to select who his replacement would be.
As reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Bills are set to hire former Carolina Panthers interim head coach Chris Tabor as their new special teams coordinator.
“Bills are hiring former Panthers interim head coach Chris Tabor as their special teams coordinator, per source,” Schefter wrote on X. “Tabor spent last season out of the NFL and now returns in Buffalo.”
Tabor will now be back in the NFL after having not coached during the 2024 season.
A native of St. Joseph, Missouri, Tabor rose through the ranks as a coach through various levels of the game, starting as an assistant coach with with Benton High School and later serving as running backs coach and then the offensive coordinator for Hutchinson Community College and Central Methodist University, respectively.
He then served as the offensive graduate assistant coach and later the Running backs and special teams coach at Missouri, followed by stints with Culver-Stockton and Utah State, followed by Western Michigan University.
His first NFL coaching experience came with the Chicago Bears in 2008, serving as the assistant special teams coach as part of Lovie Smith’s staff. He later moved on to the Cleveland Browns as special teams coordinator; they were the only NFL team with no less than one AFC Special Teams Player of the Week award in each of Tabor’s years on the job.
Returning to the Chicago Bears as special teams coordinator for four years, Tabor then was hired by the Carolina Panthers in the same role and was later elevated to the role of interim head coach after Frank Reich was fired; he went 1-6 as interim head coach.
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