BILLS FIRE COACH REX RYAN:
Fall guy in city where no one fits the Bill
Rex Ryan was kicked to the curb by a clueless owner of a lost franchise in a bitter place. It’s off to the next scapegoat now that the Bills fired Ryan Tuesday one game shy of completing his second season in charge. The stench of this star-crossed franchise has hovered over western New York for two decades. It stinks. It stinks to high heaven.
Ryan became a convenient target for the masses after he failed to deliver on his promise to find the Holy Grail. Ryan is a damn good football coach, but he’s not Houdini. These frustrated fools evidently expected Houdini. (Psst: Houdini would never win without a quarterback).
Bills owner Terry Pegula canned Ryan five days before a meaningless season finale at MetLife Stadium rather than wait until season’s end over a disagreement about which quarterback should start against the Jets: The bad one or the really bad one.
The Bills blamed their unfathomable 17year playoff drought on Ryan. The whole damn place took out their frustrations on a guy who embraced them upon his arrival less than two years ago.
If you think that Buffalo was Ryan’s preferred destination after the Jets fired him, ask yourself this question: Is Buffalo a preferred destination for anyone about anything?
Ryan might have wanted to go elsewhere, but the Pegulas wanted him. So, he dove in head first. He immediately injected the organization with energy and hope. He embraced the place, moved to a spot in town where the snow fell hardest and turned his truck into a hideous moving Bills logo.
Ryan welcomed former Bills greats who had become disillusioned. He succeeded a moneygrubbing coach who quit on his players and bolted town with a cowardly group text, a thin-skinned insecure man with a penchant for condescending co-workers and players.
Ryan felt the pain of Buffalo’s frustrated fan base. He vowed to turn these losers into winners, but made one critical mistake along the way: He overpromised.
Maybe Ryan couldn’t help himself, maybe he genuinely wanted to stop their suffering so much that he said what he knew they were desperate to hear. So his introductory press conference in Orchard Park was filled with fire and brimstone. He spoke passionately about “building a bully” by kicking ass and taking names. He riled up this moribund place.
He filled their heads with what could be possible. They evidently expected a magical rise to the top of the food chain.
“It’s a tough business,” Jets coach Todd Bowles said Tuesday. “He’s had a lot of success in this league. He’s a good coach. Sometimes things don’t go your way.” Ryan’s 8-8 first year in charge was capped with a season-ending win that kept his former employers out of the playoffs. The local media, including some of my friends in this industry, treated the .500 season like an 0-16 campaign. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that Ryan had just finished coaching the ’76 Buccaneers.
There was a curious negative vibe surrounding the team during Ryan’s first season. Rumblings about whether he’d even survive his first year prompted Pegula to issue a public vote of confidence last December. It made little sense on the surface.
Ryan didn’t exactly have a Sympatico relationship with general manager Doug Whaley, who wanted to hire Hue Jackson before the Pegulas went with their guy. Rumors of Ryan’s demise this season were floated weeks ago. You don’t need to be a member of Mensa to figure out the origin. (Hint: It wasn’t coming from Ryan).
Ryan was not blameless. The Bills’ overtime loss to the Dolphins last week was not his finest hour, but it’s unfair to paint him as some sort of overmatched clown patrolling the sideline. The Bills (7-8) have the NFL’s top-ranked rushing offense (yards and yards per carry) and a better turnover differential (+9) than the Cowboys. They have plenty of deficiencies, too.
Ryan is responsible for the good, bad and ugly, but cutting the cord just under two years into a five-year, $25 million deal is asinine. Ryan got fired after going 15-16 with a fugazi signal caller. How many coaches would have done better in two years?
Ryan, who will get a TV gig soon enough, is the latest scapegoat for this punchline of a franchise. The last Bills head coach to last Rfour full seasons: Marv Levy (1986-97) yan, who is 65-68 with two AFC Championship Game appearances in nearly eight seasons as a head coach, was never going to succeed in Buffalo, because nobody will succeed in Buffalo.
You can’t work miracles at a place drowning in its own misery.