my take on the Ryan hire...

[ublinkwescore]

It was over all quite stupid because it costed us the Schwartz and it looks like Pepper Johnson is now gone as well. yes, I know Ryan is probably the best pure defensive mind in all of football, but I am tired of watching us rebuild over and over and over again (the fact that one side of the football wasn't even broken, in fact, it was one hell of a well-oiled machine makes it even harder to stomach - if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it). Why the hell couldn't we have either A told Ryan if we hire you, you are to co-exist with Jim Schwartz, or B, thanks but no thanks. What this defense did to Rodgers and Manning in consecutive weeks was nothing short of Amazing. I doubt any Ryan defense will ever accomplish such success in back to back weeks against qbs of this caliber.

I would have been happy as hell with an offensive minded head coach that was told leave the defense alone, just fix the running game first, we will try to get you some guards and a younger bulldozer running back like Lynch or Lacey.

that being said, I am willing to give Roman the benefit of the doubt. he has contributed to beating New England in New England, and Ryan should have this defense working effectively, but I just hope it isn't in 2016 when the new defense starts to shine again.

Ryan does have a reputation for being difficult to game plan against because of the unpredictability of his own game plans, let's hope he hasn't lost that.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it but hope for the best. (that would be for us to dethrone the pats and snag a lombardi trophy or two).

[better days]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

Rex is BETTER than Schwartz.

Why settle for second best?

And the Bills played the Rex defense with Pettine as DC.

I think Roman will be a GOOD OC. They just have to get decent QB play from someone.

[justasportsfan]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

my biggest worry is that hiring an offensive coach would not guarantee Schwartz /Pepper/Henderson would have stayed.



I do like Schwartz' D better than Rexy's blitzing scheme. The giants beat the Pats in the sb just with their DL.
However, we know Schwartz is eventually going to leave at some point. While having a DC minded HC does not guarantee a top 10 D, rexy's D has always been in the top 10.

I am still on the fence about the hiring but feel better now that we have Roman as OC based on what I've read about him.

[casdhf]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

The articles I've read make it look like Schwarz left on his own. Rex was willing to keep him and work on things.

[Strongman]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

It was over all quite stupid because it costed us the Schwartz and it looks like Pepper Johnson is now gone as well. yes, I know Ryan is probably the best pure defensive mind in all of football, but I am tired of watching us rebuild over and over and over again (the fact that one side of the football wasn't even broken, in fact, it was one hell of a well-oiled machine makes it even harder to stomach - if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it). Why the hell couldn't we have either A told Ryan if we hire you, you are to co-exist with Jim Schwartz, or B, thanks but no thanks. What this defense did to Rodgers and Manning in consecutive weeks was nothing short of Amazing. I doubt any Ryan defense will ever accomplish such success in back to back weeks against qbs of this caliber.

I would have been happy as hell with an offensive minded head coach that was told leave the defense alone, just fix the running game first, we will try to get you some guards and a younger bulldozer running back like Lynch or Lacey.

that being said, I am willing to give Roman the benefit of the doubt. he has contributed to beating New England in New England, and Ryan should have this defense working effectively, but I just hope it isn't in 2016 when the new defense starts to shine again.

Ryan does have a reputation for being difficult to game plan against because of the unpredictability of his own game plans, let's hope he hasn't lost that.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it but hope for the best. (that would be for us to dethrone the pats and snag a lombardi trophy or two).

At the presser, Pegula alluded to not wanting to rebuild. He saw us as a 9-7 team a couple of plays shorts of being 11-5. That's why he went with an experienced HC who could come in and take the current team a little further.

[CommissarSpartacus]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

At the presser, Pegula alluded to not wanting to rebuild. He saw us as a 9-7 team a couple of plays shorts of being 11-5. That's why he went with an experienced HC who could come in and take the current team a little further.

There already was an experienced former HC on the staff.

He made Rex look like a fool twice this year.

Oh, and if Rex is such a great motivator, what happened to the Jets in the game at Detroit?

Certainly looked like they didn't want to play for their coach...

[stuckincincy]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

It was over all quite stupid because it costed us the Schwartz and it looks like Pepper Johnson is now gone as well. yes, I know Ryan is probably the best pure defensive mind in all of football, but I am tired of watching us rebuild over and over and over again (the fact that one side of the football wasn't even broken, in fact, it was one hell of a well-oiled machine makes it even harder to stomach - if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it). Why the hell couldn't we have either A told Ryan if we hire you, you are to co-exist with Jim Schwartz, or B, thanks but no thanks. What this defense did to Rodgers and Manning in consecutive weeks was nothing short of Amazing. I doubt any Ryan defense will ever accomplish such success in back to back weeks against qbs of this caliber.

I would have been happy as hell with an offensive minded head coach that was told leave the defense alone, just fix the running game first, we will try to get you some guards and a younger bulldozer running back like Lynch or Lacey.

that being said, I am willing to give Roman the benefit of the doubt. he has contributed to beating New England in New England, and Ryan should have this defense working effectively, but I just hope it isn't in 2016 when the new defense starts to shine again.

Ryan does have a reputation for being difficult to game plan against because of the unpredictability of his own game plans, let's hope he hasn't lost that.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it but hope for the best. (that would be for us to dethrone the pats and snag a lombardi trophy or two).

Thoughtful post. Also, I do think they reached for a "marquee" name...

[BuffaloRedleg]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

Incredible amount of speculation there buddy.

Why is everyone so quick to give their take?

[Strongman]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

There already was an experienced former HC on the staff.

He made Rex look like a fool twice this year.

Oh, and if Rex is such a great motivator, what happened to the Jets in the game at Detroit?

Certainly looked like they didn't want to play for their coach...

The Jets are a far less talented team and didn't match up well against us. We had 3 Pro Bowlers and one Pro Bowl quality player on our DL. The Jets maybe had one (Mangold)? You take one of our Pro Bowlers out, like Dareus, and a team like the Raiders beats us with a rookie QB.

[Bulldog]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

There already was an experienced former HC on the staff.

He made Rex look like a fool twice this year.

Oh, and if Rex is such a great motivator, what happened to the Jets in the game at Detroit?

Certainly looked like they didn't want to play for their coach...

The same can be said of Schwartz in Detroit no? One could definitely make the case Schwartz had way more to work with in Detroit and actually had worse results than Rex did in NY.

[CommissarSpartacus]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

Why is everyone so quick to give their take?

Uh, because we have opinions?

Some of us have been watching the Bills for over 50 years.

[CommissarSpartacus]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

The same can be said of Schwartz in Detroit no? One could definitely make the case Schwartz had way more to work with in Detroit and actually had worse results than Rex did in NY.

We can make any case we want.

Both Rex and Schwart2 took teams to the playoffs and were fired.

The difference is Schwart2 was successful last year FOR THE BILLS, and could build on that foundation.

Rex, OTOH, had a horrific year and has no foundation to build on here other than his mouth.

[trapezeus]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

to spartacus and his trolling comments - jet's were also in turmoil by week 4-5 with the FO infighting on rex vs idzik on top of not improving in thedraft for several years. they had no core to overcome that kind of specualtion and keep moving forward and no real talent. To think a 3/4 turnover game is the fault of the coaching staff when geno was throwing to bills defensive players is assinine.

to the original poster - i think your concerns are genuine. i also think on paper schwartz working another year is a great idea. but in reality he got credit for the bills beinga top 5 defense. if he ends up anywhere lower than 5 next year, that impacts his HC aspirations. i also assume the bills gave roman some incentives like "assistant HC" to come. that puts schwartz way back as a former HC of inheriting the job here. i also think it's better for a team to have a philosphy that the team buys into than best of breed but poor/inexperienced communication between HC and DC. To me, people being excited when pettine came in was a bigger risk that rex and his entire d staff that he's comfortable with.

I don't think schwartz is a good HC for this team. he didn't have a QB. we don't know his offensive philosphy and who he'd bring in.

Rex is a good hire for continuity and the desire to make this roster go forward. it's a statement of belief that this roster can win. it's hard to think they are way off on this when the offense was so incapable of doing anything right. even when the D got multiple turnovers with drives that started at the 50 or better, we were kicking field goals from 40+ yards out. the Offense had zero identity and zero commitment to run, to pass, to go for it. they need some personnel upgrades and they all need to be coached up. and they went out and got an OC that people have a lot of respect for.

any other OC hire would have been a slap in schwartz face and he still might not be here and we really have turnover on staff. and second rate coordinators stepping in. it might work, but it would have needed more time.

i'd rather fail with the current core and strengths of this team and start a fresh rebuild off of a terrible season. than to try a rebuild with no first round picks and short picks overall.

[justasportsfan]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

We can make any case we want.

Both Rex and Schwart2 took teams to the playoffs and were fired.

The difference is Schwart2 was successful last year FOR THE BILLS, and could build on that foundation.

Rex, OTOH, had a horrific year and has no foundation to build on here other than his mouth.

Schwartz was a DC while Rex was a HC last year.

Schwartz as a HC (which wasn't long ago) was no different from Rex. The team deteriorated but Schwartz had arguably better talent at Lions than Rex had @ jets.

[Dr. Who]

Re: my take on the Ryan hire...

Those who have a negative stance on Ryan subscribe to a narrative where Ryan is a snake oil salesman clown who promises the world and delivers nothing much.

Another narrative is that he is a talented coach who is borderline genius in devising defensive game plans. He never had much talent on offense and the front office consistently let him down. He may have gotten through some mistakes that are inevitable as one acquires experience. It is fairly common for good head coaches to excel in their second job.

I like Whaley. I think we will add talent to the o-line, give EJ a chance to develop and do well in a system better suited to his talents, and bring in qb competition. I read on another board that Whaley said we will draft a qb in round 2 or 3, so that sounds like healthy competition. They are not just handing it to EJ for all those haters . . . in short, we have a good, young GM and there is no complacency with regards to the talent level on the roster.

Either narrative could be true, though I prefer to buy into the second. It is just as plausible as the first and accepts that Whaley, Ryan, and the Pegulas are bright people sincerely trying to improve the team. I'd rather be hopeful and later disappointed than start with jaded pessimism and either be surprised or egotistically happy to lord it over the dummies who preferred to hope for the best.