(WGR 550) -- As Ralph Wilson vows change and big names are bandied about, The Howard Simon Show invited two NFL veterans with close ties to talk about the state of the Bills.
Mike Lodish and Steve Tasker spent part of their Thursday mornings with Howard Simon and Jeremy White. Lodish played for the Bills and won two Super Bowls with Mike Shanahan in Denver, while Tasker continues his broadcasting career with CBS after years spent as a Bills special teams stand-out, and advocated a general manager who happens to be his co-worker.
Lodish said Shanahan is as good a coach as you can find.
"He's going to bring a first-class approach and nothing else," Lodish said. "Mike Shanahan will bring and demand from anyone a sense of excellence that maybe other coaches don't bring to the table... He will demand from all of you to be a professional. He will treat you like a man until it's time to not treat you like a man."
He mentioned that Shanahan practices his teams in a way that caters to high-profile veterans, with high-speed, pad-free practices.
"You won't have anything to worry about Mike Shanahan being a disciplinarian," Lodish said. "He's going to look at you and he's going to say, 'If you don't do it like this, you are going to sell cars. It's my way, or the highway."
Tasker said there's a "handful-and-a-half" of coaches with solid resumes to consider, and said Wilson should be ready to offer the big names big power.
“They had a lot of control, a lot of power in their organizations,” Tasker said. “If you want to recreate that, you get one of those guys in there, give them free reign. I think that’s what the Bills want to do.”
Tasker said former Texans general manager Charlie Casserly could be the man for the job.
“His big downfall was he was willing to pick guys that ownership didn’t want, or pass over the big names for someone that people weren’t quite familiar with, and would always get the right guy,” Tasker said, noting the selection of defensive end Mario Williams over now-Saints tailback Reggie Bush first overall in the NFL Draft.
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