CLIFTON PARK, NY – Alright. The Buffalo Bills are officially out of the playoff contention. Though it’s disappointing because, for the first time this season, all of the teams Buffalo needed to lose actually lost. Oh well.
But anyways, I’m finally ready to talk about Rex Ryan. I’ve been holding my breath on this site and wanted to wait until Buffalo was officially out of the picture. I did write about this topic at BuffaLowDown.com last week, however.
OK, so this week, my new set of hot Ebs’ Hot Takes are examples why Rex Ryan should not be fired.
What? Say what? Sexy Rexy shouldn’t be fired? Yup. It’s not the popular decision, but it’s the correct one, and here’s why:
Two years isn’t enough time. First and foremost, it’s difficult for any head coach to fully implement their ideology in just two seasons. Just two years isn’t close to enough time and every head coach should be given at least three years, unless there some extreme circumstance.
Firing Ryan could have some serious ramifications.
Not only would the defense start from scratch, once again, this next head coach would likely have to bring in his own players to run his defense, and just think how long it’s taken Ryan to do that. The defense is still a major work in progress.
Not only will Buffalo have to start from scratch in many aspects, it will ruin the continuity within the organization. Continuity is one of the most underrated aspects in sports and the move would throw all of that away.
Not to mention, firing Rex sends a terrible message to all future head coaches. While he hasn’t been good enough, Rex has been the most-successful coach of the playoff drought, and he’s only getting two years.
Rex has made some improvements. While this defense hasn’t played to the level any of us expected, it has improved since last season.
Heading into Week 16, Buffalo was the eighth-best defense against the pass, after finishing 19th last season. And that’s with six safeties landing on the injured reserve this season, including defensive leader Aaron Williams. Six!!!
Not to mention Buffalo’s sacks are up from 21 a year ago to 38, which ranked third in the NFL. But hey, let’s just forget about all of that, right?
I understand everyone has to play with injuries, heck, the Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans both lost their quarterbacks on Saturday, but losing six safeties to the IR and your second-round linebacker never suiting up is pretty devastating.
The Bills have finally found something on offense. Lastly, Rex has found a recipe for success on offense.
Heading into Week 16, Buffalo ranked third in touchdowns and went and put up 31 points against the Miami Dolphins. Rex’s ground-and-pound works. Buffalo has the league’s best rushing offense and a quarterback that’s just good enough, and cheap enough, to make plays.
After having a career day, breaking the Bills single-game yardage record, Buffalo proved it might have the franchise’s best offense since the start of the drought. It’s an offense that is a player or two away and could be dangerous next year if the Bills make a post-season run.
Look, I’m the first to be critical of Rex Ryan, but I think firing him after just two years would be a rash move if it wasn’t to keep someone like Anthony Lynn from leaving. This isn’t the Cleveland Browns and the front office doesn’t need to act like them either.
Rome wasn’t built in one day.
Come back tomorrow for Ben Whitney and please follow us on Twitter at @ByDJEberle & @MeetTheMatts Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
It may be the 26th, but Merry Christmas and Jingle Barack!
