Mike Mularkey

Mularkey's offensive schemes continued to be touted by then-general manager Tom Donahoe, despite the lack of production, finishing 24th in total offense.

Michael Rene Mularkey (born November 19, 1961) is a former American football coach and tight end in the National Football League (NFL).

Mularkey attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played tight end for coach Charley Pell's Florida Gators football team from 1980 to 1982.

Mularkey finished his college career with 55 receptions for 628 yards and three touchdowns.

He played college football for the University of Florida, and was drafted in the ninth round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers and lasted until the final round of cuts.

Mularkey then signed with the Minnesota Vikings with whom he played for six seasons before playing another three with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mularkey has since served as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, the offensive coordinator for the Steelers, Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons, and the tight ends coach for the Dolphins, Titans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Falcons.

Mularkey was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

He attended Northeast High School in Oakland Park, Florida, and played quarterback for the Northeast Hurricanes high school football team.

In 1983, Mularkey was a ninth-round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers, but was released before appearing in a game.

He went on to play with the Minnesota Vikings until the conclusion of the 1988 season.

In 1989, Mularkey signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a free agent for the final three years of his playing career.

In his nine NFL seasons, Mularkey played in 114 regular-season games, started 46 of them, and caught 102 passes for 1,222 yards and nine touchdowns.

Mularkey was given his first coaching position as an offensive/defensive line coach at Concordia University in St. Paul Minnesota for the 1993–94 season, working under head coach Tom Cross.

Mularkey held the offensive/defensive lineman coaching position for one season.

Mularkey started his NFL coaching career in 1994 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a quality control coach for both the offense and defense.

In 1995, Mularkey was promoted to tight ends coach and held the position for one season.

Mularkey was hired as the Steelers' tight ends coach in 1996 and held the position until the end of the 2000 season, when he replaced Kevin Gilbride as the team's offensive coordinator.

Mularkey has a reputation for being an offense-oriented head coach with a penchant for trick plays.

His skill for creating special packages to utilize multi-dimensional players such as Hines Ward and Antwaan Randle El earned Mularkey the nickname "Inspector Gadget."

For the 2001 season, Mularkey was named the Assistant Coach of the Year by Pro Football Writers of America.

In 2004, Mularkey left the Steelers and was hired by the Buffalo Bills to succeed Gregg Williams as the team's head coach.

The Bills started the season with a record of 0–4, but rallied to a 9–7 record by the end of the season which was sparked by a six-game winning streak during which the Bills scored more points than in any other similar stretch in franchise history.

However, a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the regular-season finale kept the Bills out of the playoffs.

Overall, they were seventh in the league in total offense.

On January 12, 2006, Mularkey resigned as head coach of the Bills, citing a disagreement in the direction of the organization, who had recently hired new management, including ex-coach Marv Levy.

On January 22, 2006, Mularkey was hired to be the Miami Dolphins' offensive coordinator.

As the offensive coordinator under Miami's head coach, Nick Saban, Mularkey had an unsuccessful season with injuries to his first-string quarterback Daunte Culpepper and starting running back Ronnie Brown.

Following the season, it was announced Saban had resigned as Dolphins head coach and he accepted the position of head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team at the University of Alabama on January 3, 2007.

Upon the hiring of former San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron as Dolphins head coach on January 19, 2007, it was announced that Mularkey would no longer serve as offensive coordinator but would remain with the team in another capacity.

On March 15, 2007, it was officially announced that Cameron himself would call the offensive plays in 2007, leaving Mularkey to serve as tight ends coach.

On January 25, 2008, it was announced that Mularkey would become the next offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons.

In Mularkey's first season in Atlanta, the Falcons finished with an 11–5 record and the offense rushed for 152.5 rushing yards per game, second most in the league.

The Falcons also finished 10th in the NFL in scoring (up from 29th the previous year) with 24.4 points per game, and sixth in yards with 361.2 per game.

Following a 13–3 season in 2010, Mularkey was named the Offensive Coordinator of the Year by Sporting News.

He interviewed with multiple NFL teams for their head coaching vacancies for 2011.

This would be the Bills' last winning season until 2014.

Mularkey's second season in Buffalo was far less successful.

Dogged by a quarterback controversy between J. P. Losman and Kelly Holcomb and a series of defensive personnel problems, Mularkey led the team to a 5–11 finish and a sixth consecutive year out of the playoffs – the longest such active streak in the American Football Conference (AFC).

The Dolphins only scored 16.3 points per game, ranking 29th in the NFL.