Buffalo Bills fire head coach Rex Ryan

[den-the-coach]

The reason Fisher did Not hire him as our DC was Ryan's refusal to do just that.
He won't run anything but a 3-4.

That was Rob Ryan, not Rex...Right Church, wrong pew.

 

[RamsFlash80]

Taylor has out played Manual by a wide margin. Whoever is questioning the starter there should be canned.

Some coordinators need to stay Coordinators. The Ryan's are a perfect example.

Let's hope the Rams are being Diligent in the head coach search. Early bird doesn't get the worm if early bird doesn't eat the worm.

Yeah I dont get this. Taylor is not the problem at all. Hes a pretty good QB who was missing his best WR most the year. Hes coming off a game where he threw for 300+ yards/3 TDs/60 rushing yards and hes getting benched?! lol Bills are a mess.

 

[Zero]

That was Rob Ryan, not Rex...Right Church, wrong pew.

That's right.Please excuse the brain fart.lol

 

[Dan Poplawski]

I guarantee Todd Bowles is out after next weekend. And how about John Fox, done nothing in "murder city".

 

[thirteen28]

Don't want either Ryan anywhere near this team. They are buffoons.

I think Lynn will stay on as Bills HC.

I wouldn't mind us switching to a 3-4, either. Donald could easily play the 3 or 4 technique in a 3-4.

And no to this too. We have a once in a *generation* talent with Aaron Donald, a guy who is best used as an interior lineman in a 4-3. His presence alone is enough to say hell no to a switch to a 3-4. The fact that most of the rest of our front 7 is also built for a 3-4 just makes such a move all the more wrong for this team.

 

[sjm1582002]

Who is the Bills OLine coach?

I saw their last game and former Ram bad boy Richite Incognito is still starting for them.

The Bills rampaged through a stout Dolphin run defense for 272 yards on Saturday.

 

[JackDRams]

But indeed counts towards the Looney rule.

 

[Zodi]

Don't want either Ryan anywhere near this team. They are buffoons.



And no to this too. We have a once in a *generation* talent with Aaron Donald, a guy who is best used as an interior lineman in a 4-3. His presence alone is enough to say hell no to a switch to a 3-4. The fact that most of the rest of our front 7 is also built for a 3-4 just makes such a move all the more wrong for this team.

We have one linebacker, and the common consensus on this board (myself included) is that Quinn isn't as vital to the teams future as he once was. We're not suited for a 4-3, either.

 

[thirteen28]

We have one linebacker, and the common consensus on this board (myself included) is that Quinn isn't as vital to the teams future as he once was. We're not suited for a 4-3, either.

The fact that we have Donald alone makes us suitable for a 4-3. He's the kind of guy you build a defense around. And whether or not Quinn is vital to the team's future (still an open question), the depth we have on DL is almost all built for a 4-3.

 

[dieterbrock]

The fact that we have Donald alone makes us suitable for a 4-3. He's the kind of guy you build a defense around. And whether or not Quinn is vital to the team's future (still an open question), the depth we have on DL is almost all built for a 4-3.

Right, Brockers was extended this year as well. Neither Brock or Donald would be effective as an NT in a 3-4 IMO

 

[A55VA6]

Do not want

 

[Prime Time]

An overly complicated defense will cause players to think rather than react. They freeze up instead of flowing to the ball carrier. Rex must have gone along with his doppelganger Rob on his defensive scheme, so out they both go.
******************************************************************************************
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/27/marcell-dareus-too-much-detail-in-rex-ryans-defense/

Defensive tackle Marcell Dareus told Josina Anderson of ESPN that the loss of safety Aaron Williams hurt because communication was lacking “across the whole board for the defense.

Dareus also thinks the team “should’ve been just more aggressive on defense” and that Ryan’s scheme wasn’t a great fit for the players that the Bills had on hand.

“It was just too much detail for a lot of guys, and I feel like for a lot of guys it was too much going on for them to check here and check there, if this happens and that happens,” Dareus said. “Then nine times out of ten, a team will throw something out there that we weren’t prepared for, and then the adjustment to it, we had to get use to and try to make it happen and make plays.”

It’s not the first time that Bills players have sounded off about Ryan’s scheme and communication difficulties during games.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/27/whats-next-for-rex-ryan/

What’s next for Rex Ryan?
Posted by Mike Florio on December 27, 2016

With his firing in Buffalo, Rex Ryan’s eight straight seasons as an NFL head coach have likely ended. So what comes next?

The last time he was fired from an NFL head-coaching job, after the 2014 season, Ryan quickly landed on his feet in Buffalo. That’s not likely to happen again. He possibly would get consideration to become the defensive coordinator with another team, if a head coach is sufficiently secure in his position to have a big personality like Ryan’s in the building — and if Ryan is willing to take a step down the coaching ladder.

Many presume Ryan will head to TV. Two years ago, ESPN senior coordinator producer Seth Markman lauded Ryan as a potential superstar.

“He pretty much has everything TV networks would look for. He has personality, he’s not shy about his opinions, and he’s a colorful character,” Markman told Richard Deitsch of SI.com, who separately reported at the time that Ryan could have made $3 million to $5 million per year as an analyst after losing his job with the Jets.

“I think he would be successful whether it is in studio or doing games. When I close my eyes and listen to him I hear a little bit of John Madden in him. There is going to be a lot of interest in Rex if that is what he wants to do.”

Not everyone agrees that Ryan will be an instant or sustained success story. His star burned the brightest following the Hard Knocks season of 2010. Since then, there’s been a gradual fading of it.

Also, some (i.e., me) believe that he would have a limited range of takes, with the same collection of thoughts and theories coming up again and again and again. Moreover, if Ryan chooses to pull punches in order to preserve future job options in the NFL, his opinions will necessarily have less gusto.

Then there’s the nagging question of what went so horribly wrong in Buffalo to cause ownership to fall completely out of love with the guy in less than two full seasons. At a minimum, Ryan’s next employer will want to know, or at least try to find out, every detail about what went so horribly wrong so quickly in Buffalo.

All things considered (including the quality of the total universe of on-air studio and game analysts), Ryan could find a niche and thrive. One big factor will be whether and to what extent his buyout is reduced by TV work, and whether and to what extent he’s willing to work for free.

If Rex Ryan ultimately covets being a head coach, perhaps he’ll land at the college level, which he spent 10 of his formative coaching years.

However it plays out, it’s unlikely that the 54-year-old Ryan will simply fade away. He may never again be an NFL head coach, but he could be very successful in another capacity. Much of it depends on what he wants to do and what’s available to him.

 

[thirteen28]

An overly complicated defense will cause players to think rather than react

Kinda sounds like our offense too, particularly when it comes to blocking. Overly complicated, yet easy to read and predict by the defense. And our OLinemen look like they don't know who to block half the time.

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/12/27/rex-ryan-fired-bills-future

Rex Ryan’s Last Rodeo?
The Bills brought the Rex Ryan era in Buffalo to an end a game short of two full seasons. What went wrong, and what’s next for the team and the coaching lifer who was supposed to turn around the franchise
by Jenny Vrentas

Photo: Rich Barnes/Getty Images

When Rex Ryan arrived in Western New York less than two years ago, he came in making several bold statements, as is his nature. One of those declarations was that the Buffalo Bills’ head coaching job would be his last stop. His final job.

That prediction might very well turn out to be true. It’s far more likely that you'll see Ryan on one of the network studio shows in 2017 than on an NFL sideline—and that’ll be as much his call as that of a team looking for a coach. He’s not likely to get another head-coaching shot anytime soon, and though he has a proven track record as one of the most imaginative and resourceful defensive coordinators in the NFL over the last decade—he won’t want to step back into a coordinator’s role. So TV: Here comes Rex.

The Bills announced late Tuesday morning that, with one week to go in the season, they have fired both Rex Ryan and his twin brother, Rob, who this past winter joined Rex in Buffalo as assistant head coach/defense. The writing was all over the wall the past few weeks. Ryan looked as defeated in his press conferences as he had back in 2014, when he knew he was in his final days as the Jets head coach.

The final straw for the Pegulas was evidently the Bills’ performance in their Christmas Eve loss to the Dolphins, when Ryan came under fire for blundering an attempt to call time out on Miami’s tying field goal at the end of regulation and deciding to punt on a fourth-and-short late in overtime of a must-win game.

Then the Bills defense had only 10 men on the field for the 57-yard Jay Ajayi run that set up Miami’s winning score in OT. The Dolphins won, despite the Bills amassing 589 yards of total offense. Buffalo’s playoff drought extended to 17 seasons.

What went wrong in Buffalo? It starts with the fact that the Pegulas are bottom-line owners. They are willing to devote as many resources as are needed, but they need to see results. They gave Ryan a $27.5 million contract to come to Buffalo, made his assistants among the top-paid coaches at their positions in the NFL, and this past offseason agreed to expand the staff even further, creating positions for Rob Ryan and Ed Reed, members of Rex’s inner circle.

But when Saturday’s loss ensured that this would be the second straight season without a winning record under Ryan, they acted. The other main reason is the driving force behind many firings in this business: division within the organization.

There’s no question that the last few years have taken a toll on Ryan. Looking back, he would have been better served taking a year off after he was fired by the Jets. Certainly there are examples of coaches who do well going directly from one NFL head coaching job to the next, like Andy Reid.

But there are plenty more who have benefited greatly from a gap in between, like Tom Coughlin and Pete Carroll. Bill Belichick benefited from going back to being a coordinator for a few years after his first head coaching stint, in Cleveland.

The story of what happened in Buffalo extends back to the end of Ryan’s tenure in New York. The last two seasons with the Jets wore on Ryan, from his belief that the organization was pulling away from him, to the clashing with general manager John Idzik. I believe he took the Bills job for two reasons: 1) They made him feel wanted and 2) his loyalty to his assistant coaches.

Ryan signed a multiyear extension before his final year in New York, but the organization reneged on its promise to similarly extend his assistants. Many were left on one-year deals for that final season with the Jets. When Ryan was fired from the Jets, he would have left his staff hanging if he didn’t take another job again right away.

So he jumped at a gig that was too similar to the last—still in the same division as Belichick and Tom Brady, without an established quarterback and with another coach-GM arranged marriage. He had also interviewed with the Falcons and was waiting for a call back for a second interview but fixated on the Bills job when he realized their interest was real, not wanting to risk being left out in the cold.

Ryan brought some of the New York baggage with him to Buffalo, even if it was not immediately apparent. And the task of turning around a franchise whose playoff drought is now old enough to drive was a probably a bigger undertaking than he or those around him initially realized. Do I believe that two years is enough to do that?

No, especially not with a roster lacking a healthy core of homegrown players, as thoroughly detailed earlier this month by The Buffalo News’ Tim Graham. The Bills had fewer of their own draft picks on their roster than any other team in the league, making it harder to withstand injuries or build in a consistent direction. Considering the Bills roster this year, calling a 7-9 or 8-8 finish underachieving seems unfair.

But the Pegulas’ actions say that they saw enough from Ryan in two years to believe that giving him more time would not turn this operation around. A big factor is the performance of the defense, which folded in a few key games, like the losses to Oakland and Miami. In Baltimore and New York, Ryan’s strength was loyalty from his players and how he could creatively bring out their strengths.

There were very public signs, though, that he never established that same dynamic in Buffalo. One of the Bills’ best players, Jerry Hughes, was benched for the start of the Week 14 game against Pittsburgh for a non-injury reason. Ryan also enumerated in a press conference some of the mistakes cornerback Stephon Gilmore made in the second Patriots game, a loss.

Both were a departure from Ryan’s normal way of business—and a indicator of strained relationships with some of his most important defensive players.

On the other hand, Bills DT Leger Douzable, who played for Ryan in both New York and Buffalo, railed against the organization’s decision to fire Ryan, writing on Twitter that it’s “hard to build a winner if the coach changes every two years.”

The fact that the Bills allowed three 200-yard rushers this season was perhaps the biggest sign that, for whatever reason, Rex Ryan never got his defense working the same way it has at every other place he’s coached. Rushing yards had always been the greatest point of pride for Ryan, a former defensive line coach.

Remember when he fired the defensive line coach midway through his first season as the Jets head coach and would sometimes get in the trenches and coach himself? It's been years since Ryan had that same kind of day-to-day involvement in the defense, as he wrestled to find the right balance between sitting in the head coaching chair and immersing himself in defensive schemes.

There was also the perception that, by Ryan adding his twin brother to the staff and having essentially three defensive coordinators, there were simply too many cooks in the kitchen. During the Bills’ four-game winning streak early in the season, Ryan said defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman had assumed play-calling duties; but Ryan also said Rob was responsible for red-zone calls; then a few weeks ago, Ryan said he himself had been making calls all along.

If they were winning, it wouldn’t have mattered, but when calls got in late, or players appeared to be confused about their assignments, this only heightened the scrutiny. You can understand that Ryan wanted to help rehabilitate his brother’s career, but instead, it ended up playing a role in hurting his own.

But as mentioned above, one of the most common reasons for owners to make a coaching change is division within the organization. The friction between Ryan and Whaley was not a secret. Quarterback was one dividing line. Tyrod Taylor was Ryan’s hand-picked guy, while Whaley would have liked to see EJ Manuel, his first-round draft pick, get another shot.

Ryan and Whaley also seemed to have different views on the kind of defensive players the team needed. This spring, in an interview with The MMQB, Ryan made the point that the Bills picked Reggie Ragland in the second round because “that was a Ryan defensive player, going back to the days when our dad was coaching the Bears.” In other words, that was Ryan’s pick. Whaley might have had other ideas.

In that same conversation in May, Ryan also seemed to hint at concerns that not everybody in the building believed in him. “I don’t know all the business people yet,” he said then. “They should be ‘all in,’ but I don’t know.” The feeling of betrayal he felt during his last few years in New York never left him. Likewise, the strained relationship Ryan had with his previous GM, Idzik, likely impacted Whaley’s relationship with Ryan.

Whaley had a hand in picking Ryan, but this was yet another arranged marriage. Now, it will go down as another failed arranged marriage. The Bills’ struggles predate Ryan, but he will be the one paying the consequences now; the team announced that Whaley will lead the search for the third head coach of his GM tenure.

Anthony Lynn, the assistant head coach/running backs coach who was promoted to offensive coordinator after Week 2, will serve as the interim coach and has a chance to hold onto the job. By firing Ryan before the final week of the season, the Pegulas are giving Lynn a brief audition for the role. If they keep Lynn as the permanent head coach, they will be following a path similar to the one the Bucs took last year, letting Lovie Smith go and promoting Dirk Koetter to maintain some continuity.

As for Ryan, this was not he had in mind when he said Buffalo would be his last coaching gig. But that’s a bold statement that may indeed come to fruition.

 

[den-the-coach]

I guarantee Todd Bowles is out after next weekend. And how about John Fox, done nothing in "murder city".

Don't see the Jets firing Bowles after only two years and coming off a 10-6 campaign as to John Fox you could be right,however, the Bears usually don't pay coaches not to coach and Fox signed a four year deal in 2015, so history tells us Fox from a contractual standpoint alone will get one more year.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Taylor has out played Manual by a wide margin. Whoever is questioning the starter there should be canned.

From the article i posted in this thread: It's about money. Shocker right?

The decision also hovers squarely around money, with Taylor's remaining contract -- a hefty $30.75 million in full -- becoming fully guaranteed if he were to go down with a major injury on Sunday.

Instead of falling into an unwanted financial commitment, the Bills under interim coach -- and possibly future coach -- Anthony Lynn will use Week 17 as a chance to assess Manuel, the former first-round pick who will hit free agency in the offseason.

Ryan's backing of Taylor certainly played a role in his premature dismissal, allowing un-killable general manager Doug Whaley to sit Taylor and get one more look at the quarterback he whiffed on in the 2013 NFL Draft.

Everything we've seen from Taylor -- coming off one of his best games -- suggests a more athletic, accurate and exciting answer under center. Buffalo's front office, though, isn't ready to shake their ridiculous fascination with the mundane Manuel.

 

[Mojo Ram]

I guarantee Todd Bowles is out after next weekend.

If so, i'm hearing whispers in AZ of him possibly returning as DC for Arians. Unsubstantiated rumors but thought i'd mention it.

 

[PressureD41]

I read Bills GM Doug Whalley over $$$ as next coach "might" not want Tyrod so why play him which would guarantee him a big bonus

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...or-plan-start-ej-manuel-week-17-new-york-jets

 

[jrry32]

Good news for us. I'd love to get Anthony Lynn as a our OC and Aaron Kormer as a our OL Coach. Both are on Ryan's staff.