Ryan aims high with Bills
Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan plans to learn from his mistakes with the New York Jets and use that experience to shape his new team.
Since arriving in Buffalo in January, Ryan has said the Bills are closing on the Super Bowl-champion New England Patriots.
Ryan had a 46-50 record with the Jets. New York advanced to the AFC Championship Game in each of his first two seasons, 2009 and 2010. Over the past four seasons, however, the Jets finished 8-8 twice, 6-10 and 4-12.
“I’ve had six years of experience,” Ryan told Albert Breer of NFL.com last week at organized team activity practice. “So am I gonna be better now? Of course. You’re not gonna be worse by having experience. The other thing is understanding what’s important, because the second time, I was lucky — I got to choose where to go. The thing about that was, go to an organization where you see the direction, and it’s the same direction (you believe in).
“When I look back on it, I looked at when I should’ve been more upfront with the ( Jets) owner. I think that was a big thing: ‘Look, we got some issues, this needs to be resolved.’ I knew what was gonna happen. We all knew it.
“But now, there’s no way in hell (that happens again). If I’m going down, I’m going down swinging. And if it happens, it’s gonna be, ‘Here’s some issues we need to fix.’ And hit them head on.”
Ryan, 52, has spoken this offseason about his admiration for Bills owner Terry Pegula. Before being hired, Ryan was brought back for a second interview at Pegulas’ Boca Raton, Fla., home.
The Bills went 9-7 in 2014 and finished with a winning record for the first time since 2004. They have not reached the postseason in 15 years, the longest active drought in the NFL.
“You have to roll the exact same way, and we don’t need anybody that’s gonna be an anchor to this team or have a hidden agenda,” Ryan said. “Once you chop all that off, we’re gonna be pretty good. And again, we may not get to where we wanna go — we wanna paddle to a damn Super Bowl, everyone gets that. We may end up somewhere else, but at least we’re gonna go together.
“We all want the same thing. We wanna win and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to get there. We see it. We know the direction that we need to take. There’s no hidden agendas. There’s no whatever. This is how we’re gonna do things, and we’re gonna get it done. We won’t compromise, and we will make sure people are on the same boat, paddling in the same direction.”