After Firing Rex Ryan, What’s Next for Buffalo?

Rex Ryan and his brother Rob Ryan officially got the ax before Black Monday, making Ryan the 3rd head coach in the NFL who lost his job before the season even ended, along with Jeff Fisher of the Rams and Gus Bradley of the Jaguars. There had been reports that Ryan’s job was in jeopardy for several weeks now, but many were surprised to see him let go with just one for game left in the season. Some have speculated his early firing was related to his refusing to bench starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor for the Bills’ season finale with the Bills already having been eliminated from playoff contention. Taylor has an injury clause in his contract that would pay him over $30 million dollars if he suffers a serious injury during a game, which is something many in Buffalo’s front office were not willing to risk given the team’s circumstances (and understandably so, especially considering the reports that Taylor is not going to travel with the team this week in order to have a groin injury checked out by a specialist in Philadelphia to assess if it will require offseason surgery).

While this situation certainly may have contributed to the organization’s decision to fire him with just one game left in the season, make no mistake, Ryan was likely to be fired regardless, and rightfully so, because he has not done a very good job since taking over as coach of the Bills. While his record of over his two seasons 15-16 is not terrible, it certainly doesn’t display any improvement and in fact shows some regression from when they went 9-7 in 2014, Doug Marrone’s final season as head coach. Many fans thought that Ryan’s defensive schemes and some of the talent Buffalo displayed on that side of the ball would be a match made in heaven. However, Ryan’s promises to create a “bully” and break the Bills out of the NFL’s longest playoff drought (they haven’t made the playoffs since 1999, even the Browns have gotten in once since then) have been empty. Surely, some people believe that not even two seasons of coaching isn’t enough time for a coach to build a winner, but Ryan inherited a team that was on the brink of a playoff birth before he took over. He made his seat warmer each time he promised results he couldn’t provide and ultimately, as a fan of the team, I can’t help but think we are farther away from our goal of becoming a playoff team than we were before he took over. While injuries, especially to star receiver Sammy Watkins, certainly haven’t helped the Bills cause this season, one could argue that the defense Ryan was brought in to build has been the team’s biggest weakness this season, ranking 28th in rush yards allowed per game,  19th in total yards allowed, and 15th in points allowed. This is especially concerning when compared to the defense in 2014, when the Bill had the 4th best defense in points allowed per game (over 8 points less than this season) and the 11th best rush defense (allowing over 80 yards less than this year).

All of this leads us to many unanswered questions for the Bills coming into next season. General Manager Doug Whaley will be leading the search for a new head coach, and we have to wonder how much longer he will be kept around after misfiring on the decision to hire Ryan in the first place and making some questionable decisions in his own right. The Pegulas, the owners of the Bills, took over with the goal to make the Bills a competitive team again, and they certainly have experience in helping to move franchises in the right direction being the owners of the Buffalo Sabres as well. The fan base in Western New York is becoming increasingly impatient (an rightfully so), so it seems like nobody in Buffalo can really consider their jobs to be safe, including Whaley and many of the players on the field (Tyrod Taylor and Stephon Gilmore have been under the microscope all season long). So then who will Whaley target? The in-house choice would be Anthony Lynn, who was the running backs coach in the beginning of the season and was promoted to offensive coordinator after the Bills’ week 2 loss to the Jets and has improved the offense’s play dramatically since taking over, as through this point in the season they rank as the 7th best scoring offense, 12th in total yards, and 1st in rush yards. He can consider Sunday as an audition for both the Bills’ job as well as other jobs around the league, as he will serve as Buffalo’s interim head coach in its final game of the season on Sunday against the Jets with E.J. Manuel as the starting quarterback. While it is very early to definitely say who else Whaley may look to interview, one could imagine that the list will also include at least some of the hot-commodity coordinators and assistants elsewhere in the league, such as Josh McDaniels, Tom Cable, and Steve Spagnuolo. One thing is for sure though, the Bills have a lot of question marks to answer heading into the end of a season that they will be watching at home for the 17th consecutive season.