The Buffalo Bills shook things up on their staff following the 2024 season.
The team fired strength and conditioning coach Eric Ciano, as reported by Ryan O’Halloran of The Buffalo News.
Ciano held the position with the Bills since 2013, well before head coach Sean McDermott (2017) and general manager Brandon Beane (2018) were around.
It was an interesting move, considering the Bills had their healthiest season in recent memory. Down the stretch of the 2024 regular season and into the postseason, the Bills were exactly where they wanted to be in terms of their players being active for gameday.
In the playoffs (three games), only one total game was missed by a Bills starter, and that was safety Taylor Rapp in the AFC championship.
And, for the season as a whole, the Bills were one of the healthiest in the league. According to a study from the Buffalo News, the Bills had the eighth healthiest roster in the NFL this past year (according to the number of games lost by starters to injury).
Although the Bills had good overall health in terms of their gameday injury reports, players were struggling through injuries and struggling to return to a high level of play after injury.
Specifically, the returns from injury by rookie receiver Keon Coleman and second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid were brought up by Beane in his end-of-season press conference.
While it’s not known the specifics of why Ciano was let go by the Bills, it is worth noting that Beane was concerned about the durability of his top draft selections over the last two years.
On Coleman, Beane said, “I was a little disappointed in the return from the injury. I did not see the same player down the stretch.”
And on Kincaid, Beane said, “Dalton didn’t have the year he expected or we expected, not for any particular reason other than some durability things. He got nicked up… he’s going to continue to work on his play strength. He’s not as built and muscular as, let’s just say, Dawson [Knox] is.
“In college you don’t play 17 games plus playoffs, so building your body up to withstand what it takes…,” Beane continued. “Unfortunately, I think it was the Colts game… banged his knee, he had the PCL… I think that set him back.”
It remains to be seen what the Bills’ plan is for replacing Ciano as the head of strength and conditioning.