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PFTV: Mike Florio thinks Pittsburgh peaked too early this season and believes the team needs to win Sunday night to make the playoffs. (NBC Sports)

PFTV: Mike Florio thinks Pittsburgh peaked too early this season and believes the team needs to win Sunday night to make the playoffs. (NBC Sports)

PFTV: Mike Florio thinks Pittsburgh peaked too early this season and believes the team needs to win Sunday night to make the playoffs. (NBC Sports)

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Buffalo Bills met with coaching candidate Mike Shanahan for seven hours Monday night and Tuesday morning in Denver.



The report suggests Bills chief operating officer Russ Brandon interviewed for Shanahan rather than vice versa.



“We had an excellent meeting,” Shanahan told Schefter on Wednesday. “I was really impressed with Russ Brandon and everything he had to say. We’re going to stay in touch and see what develops.”



The Bills are expected to take their time in making a hire and will interview several more candidates before they find the permanent replacement for Dick Jauron, who was fired last week and replaced with defensive coordinator Perry Fewell on an interim basis.



Almost all of the top-tier candidates have rebuffed the Bills’ attempts to talk about the job. Substantive reports have stated Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher and Mike Holmgren have turned them down.



The next wave of candidates might include the likes of Brian Billick, Jim Fassel, Mike Martz and Jim Haslett, but the Bills seem hot for an offensive-minded coach, which could work against Haslett, a former Bills linebacker.



Billick had an 80-64 career record and won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens. Defense was the foundation of those Ravens teams, but Billick is a lifelong offensive coach who had a star quarterback only once in his nine seasons there. Billick won 13 games with Steve McNair in 2006.



Fassel went 58-53 as head coach of the New York Giants and won an NFC title. Bills fans might note some similarities between their team and the one Fassel took over in 1997. The Giants went 6-10 the year before, but Fassel guided them to a 10-5-1 record and the NFC East championship with Danny Kannel and Dave Brown as his quarterbacks.



Martz coached The Greatest Show on Turf with the St. Louis Rams for six seasons. He went 53-32 and won an NFC title. His offense ranked No. 1 in the NFL in 2000 and 2001 with such stars as Kurt Warner, Torry Holt and Marshall Faulk.



Another offensive-oriented coach who has been mentioned is longtime NFL offensive coordinator Marc Trestman, who has been tearing up the Canadian Football League as head coach of the Montreal Alouettes.



But one major hang-ups the Bills will have is their quarterback situation. They have no obvious starting quarterback on their roster. The organization apparently has given up on Trent Edwards, and Ryan Fitzpatrick isn’t held in high regard. Newly acquired third-stringer Brian Brohm is a project.



Many coaches’ names will be associated with the opening. Expect some surprises along the way.

TAMPA, Fla. — If you had looked at and listened to New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey in the locker room at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, you wouldn’t have recognized him.



He was certainly unrecognizable if you already had a preconceived scouting report from his long-ago days with the New York Giants. He was a mouthy brat, so selfish that he chose to disappear rather than join his teammates. You read about in all the tabloids and heard about it on all the talk-radio shows.



“Bad guy all the way around,’’ was the universal scouting report on Shockey.



Well, guess what? All that’s changed. The Shockey I saw after that game and after many other games this season sure appears to be the exact opposite. He’s courteous, insightful and most all, it seems every sentence involves talk of how the Saints are having a special season and how much he wants to be a part of it.



If ever we were going to see the Shockey of old, this was going to be the time. He had caught just two passes against a horrible Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense. In each of the previous two games, he had three receptions. If the man who used to get ripped for caring more about his individual stats was going to truly resurface, this had to be the moment.



And it sure seemed like it was coming when Shockey invited the media to his locker and said, “You guys ready?’’



This was the precise moment when you realized the guy who was made out to be a major-league whiner definitely is not that now. And it makes you wonder if he ever truly was as he was painted in his tumultuous New York days.



The chance to complain about the two catches was there, waiting for a shot into the upper deck. Shockey kept the bat on his shoulder.



“The last two games, sure, I would have liked to be a little bit more of a part of our success,’’ Shockey said.



But from there it didn’t evolve into the train wreck the New York media thrived on. From there, it turned into talk from a team player.



Yes, Jeremy Shockey has turned into a team player. Seriously. Maybe it’s maturity. Maybe it’s the fact that this is Drew Brees’ team and you can’t push him around like a young Eli Manning. Or maybe it’s simply that Shockey realizes he could be on his way to the Super Bowl –- a Super Bowl he desperately wants to play in – and is making sure to do and say all the right things.



“It’s a great feeling,’’ Shockey said. “Being 10-0 is something special and we’re having a special season. But I know we can play better.’’



Catch the last part about “we can play better”? That’s not Shockey complaining about a lack of passes being thrown his way — you’d have no doubt if that was what he wanted to say. That last part was another sign that Shockey is more content in New Orleans. It’s a sign he’s become something else he never was — a leader.



Seriously.



I then asked Shockey if he’s happier than he’s ever been in his career. He gave one of those half smiles that you never saw when he was so banged up in his first season in New Orleans — or just about any time during his days in New York.



“That’s probably true,’’ Shockey said. “Winning is always good.’’



But things like winning and being a leader never were in Shockey’s arsenal in his New York days. When Shockey was injured late in the 2007 and the Giants were on their way to winning a Super Bowl, he chose to keep his distance from the team. He took a public beating for that one and the organization was so concerned about Shockey’s ability to ever be a team player that he was dealt to New Orleans right before the start of the 2008 season.



Shockey feels it’s time to set the record straight on the whole Super Bowl thing.



“There’s the competitive nature in me that would have loved to have been out there,’’ Shockey said. “But I was depressed. I had a broken leg. I couldn’t be out there contributing, so I didn’t think I’d be any help to the team.’’



If Shockey felt like an outcast then, he doesn’t know. He came to the Saints last year and put up respectable numbers, but failed to catch a touchdown pass in a season in which he dealt with several injuries. He seemed to be going down the wrong road again when he wasn’t a regular at team workouts in the offseason.



Then, there was the infamous incident in Vegas, where Shockey was taken from a pool party to the hospital because he was “dehydrated’’. Whatever happened there might have been the best thing to ever happen to Shockey.



He came back to New Orleans, took place in every workout from there on out, fell under the wing of quarterback Drew Brees and nobody’s questioning his work ethic or team spirit at all these days.



Aside from the last three games, he’s been productive and a big part of the offense. He has 39 catches for 461 yards and three touchdowns. He and the Saints seem to understand the last three games were the exception. The Saints need more from Shockey if they’re going to go undefeated.



“You walk out of this game and you ask, “Why did Jeremy Shockey only have two catches today?’’ Brees said. “Well, look at the other guys who ended up making big plays. So one guy maybe who has gotten a lot of action all of the sudden for some reason gets taken out of the game because of their scheme or just because the ball is not coming his way, it opens up opportunities for other people.’’



The current-day Shockey is bright enough to realize that’s true. He’s also patient enough to wait for the days where the ball comes to him frequently because he knows those days are coming.



He’s got a personal goal in mind, but, more than that, it’s a team goal.



“I didn’t get to be a part of that Super Bowl with the New York football Giants and that still bothers me,’’ Shockey said. “But, here, we’ve really got a chance to do something special and I’m doing everything I can to be a part of that. I think I’ve got a chance to finally get to my Super Bowl with this team.’’

Nov. 25: Mike Florio thinks the Jets may jettison Rex Ryan and pursue Bill Cowher if they continue to struggle. (NBC Sports)