WHILE REX HAS TV, BILLS HAVE TOM
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REX Ryan is Oscar and Tom Coughlin is Felix. The former Jets/Bills coach and former Giants coach are as odd a couple as you could possibly imagine, but were good friends the last few years they coached in New York. Now they may be passing each other very soon in the Buffalo Airport: Ryan on his way out of town and Coughlin on his way in.
In what would be a most bizarre turn of events, Coughlin is considered a leading contender in Buffalo to replace Ryan, who within hours of being fired Tuesday is a hot ticket in television. ESPN is interested having him in studio for this weekend and/or the playoffs and then making him part of their NFL coverage.
Even stranger than Coughlin potentially replacing Ryan: There is actually a faction of Jets Nation suggesting Ryan 2.0 if Todd Bowles is fired by Woody Johnson after Sunday’s disastrous season comes to an end. One source said, “I don’t think so, but I don’t know that for sure one way or the other,” and another said, “Woody loved Rex, but felt betrayed by him at the end and didn’t trust him.”
Coughlin met with Ryan, Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula and team president Russ Brandon in Florida in the middle of the offseason about a consultant’s role. They could not come up with a suitable position and Coughlin took a job at the NFL office in July. Now he could get Ryan’s job. Coughlin wants to coach again after getting fired by the Giants after last season. He’s from upstate New York, went to Syracuse and, as Bill Parcells told me in 1992 about why he would want to coach in Green Bay, “You get up in the morning when it’s dark, drive to the facility, stay all day and night, drive home at midnight and do it again the next day. So what difference does it make where you live?”
Coughlin, also a candidate in Jacksonville, where he coached from 1995-2002, would likely have the same response about Buffalo.
What’s next for Rex besides collecting the $16.5 million the Bills owe him for the last three years of his contract? Well, in the short term, he might be giving himself a going-away present with one last plate of chicken wings at the Anchor Bar before heading to his relatively new hometown in Nashville.
Looking a bit further ahead after talking Tuesday to industry sources in the NFL and network television, here’s the consensus:
l He has no shot at being an NFL head coach ever again. The Bills were the only team interested in Ryan after Johnson canned him after the 2014 season. Buffalo is a tough sell for elite coaches — great fans, bad weather, no QB — and the Bills didn’t really want Ryan. But they were desperate. So was Ryan. He wanted the Falcons job that went to Dan Quinn and despite TV opportunities, jumped at his only offer to get back into the grind immediately.
Ryan didn’t get along with Jets GM John Idzik for good reason: Idzik was more concerned with impressing Johnson with how far he could get under the salary cap than he was with giving Ryan a talented roster. Ryan also clashed with the Bills’ front office. He lost the locker room in Buffalo for the first time in his career. He makes promises to the fans that he can’t keep.
Chances to be offered a head coaching job again?