Team

25th Year in the NFL/5th Year with the Bills (4th as head coach)

Dick Jauron’s coaching career traveled full-circle when he was named the Buffalo Bills’ 14th head coach on January 23, 2006.  Jauron began his coaching career as a Bills defensive assistant coach in 1985 and 21 years later he returned to Western New York to take over the team that gave him his first professional coaching job.

Jauron will enter his fourth season as the Buffalo Bills head coach in 2009 – the longest tenure for a Bills head coach since Marv Levy coached the team for 12 seasons from 1986-97.

Jauron ranks fifth all-time in Bills history with 21 career wins.  His record with Buffalo is 21-27 and overall career record is 57-76 (.429). He earned his 50th career victory against the Dolphins in week 14 of the 2007 campaign. 

Since his arrival in 2006, the Bills have been among the most disciplined in the team’s history.  In 2008, the Bills set a team record for the fewest penalties in a 16-game season with 71 and the fewest penalty yards in a 16-game season with 538.

The Bills were also secure with the football as they allowed just 21 turnovers to tie a team record (1990, 1998) and lost just seven fumbles which also ties a team record for a 16-game season (1998).

Jauron has over two decades of NFL coaching experience.  In his first stint as an NFL head coach, Jauron spent five seasons as the head coach for the Chicago Bears and he was the 2001 Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year. That season, he led the Bears to a 13-3 record and their first NFC Central Division Championship since 1990. Jauron joined George Halas and Mike Ditka as the only coaches in franchise history to reach 13 wins in a single season and the sixth Bears coach to string together a six-game winning streak within a season.
 
The 2001 Bears were known for their clutch play as they accumulated five second half come-from-behind victories and an 8-0 record in games decided by seven points or less. The Bears defense ranked first in the NFL in points allowed and second in rushing yards allowed.
 
Prior to his stint in Chicago, Jauron served as the defensive coordinator for the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars from 1995-98, helping lead the team to three playoff appearances in four years, including the AFC Championship game in 1996 and the AFC Central Division title in 1998.

Jauron coached the defensive backs for the Green Bay Packers from 1986-94.

Jauron was drafted in the fourth round of the 1973 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions and also by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1973 Major League Baseball draft in June. He spent his first five NFL seasons with Detroit. He started at free safety as a rookie and was a Pro Bowl selection in 1974 after leading the NFC in punt return average (16.8).  He played the final four seasons of his career with the Cincinnati Bengals, and finished with a career total of 26 interceptions and two touchdowns. After retiring from the NFL, Jauron worked two years for Nautilus Sports Medical Industries before launching his coaching career.

A graduate of Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in history, Jauron holds several school rushing records, including consecutive 100-yard rushing games (16). He spent some of his childhood in Rensselaer, Ind., where his father was the head coach at St. Joseph’s College. A three-sport standout at Swampscott (Mass.) High School, Jauron was named one of the top 10 prep athletes of the 20th Century in the state of Massachusetts by the Boston Globe.

Jauron and his wife, Gail, have two daughters, Kacy and Amy.