What now?

The Dick Jauron firing was the most-expected event of the sports year in Western New York.

The vital question long before the firing was, "Who cleans up after the carnage?"

There is so much wrong with the Bills that it would take a pro football expert to

perform the autopsy much less make moves that might take the franchise out of the

laughingstock category.

That's it! Hire an expert as a temporary consultant to assess the damage, offer some sort of

plan for eventual recovery, provide some worthy names as potential new general managers who

would then hire the new coach. Genuine experts cost money but costly consultants are hired

every day in the business world as a businessman such as Ralph Wilson surely recognizes. It's

just a question of getting the best consultant available. The best consultants are not now

residing on the Bills' business side.

There are such people capable of making chicken salad out of chicken scratch. Two of them come

quickly to mind: Ron Wolf, the former Green Bay general manager who traded a first-round draft

choice to Atlanta for a backup quarterback named Brett Favre; and Ernie Accorsi, the former

general manager of the New York Giants, the real Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Colts. In

New York he traded for Eli Manning, in Cleveland he traded for the rights to Bernie Kosar and

in Baltimore he drafted John Elway only to have the owner, the late Robert Irsay, trade

Elway's rights behind the GM's back to Denver.

Shortly after he retired, Accorsi became the director of the NFL GM's association. He knows

who's who in the NFL and how to get the best information on candidates. He hired Bill

Belichick to his first head coaching job with the Browns, worked for the renowned GM George

Young with the Giants then as GM he himself hired Tom Coughlin as coach.

There are potentially good coaches and general managers out there somewhere within the

other 31 NFL franchises. Buffalo fans want the coach to be one of the big names currently

taking a sabbatical, but few if any of those big names are keen on returning to their trade as

skipper of the Titanic. Other fans want the coach to be Jim Kelly or some other great old

Bill. Let me know when you think of a Hall of Fame caliber player who became a successful head

coach without some sort of coaching internship. Besides, Kelly wants to be an owner, not a

coach.

The idea of a consultant is to identify who might make the best fit in Buffalo. Men like

Wolf and Accorsi are retired but the challenge of stepping in temporarily to steady a once-

great franchise might appeal to them or a few other good men who are in various stages of

retirement.

Once the consultant steps away there will be an enormous amount of decisions to be made by

the new GM and head coach. There is talent on the Buffalo roster, especially on the defensive

side. The defensive unit is what kept the team in contention for large segments of the game

despite losing five, sometimes six starters to injury. So the team isn't a total loss.

In 2010 the defense again is what will be asked to keep the team afloat while Tim Tebow, Colt

McCoy or whatever quarterback hones his skills that will allow him to direct the Bills back to

eventual respectability.

Former Sports Editor Larry Felser appears in Sunday's editions.