One of my favourite Rex Ryan quotes from his time coaching the Jets came when he was asked if he was intimidated by coaching against Bill Belichick. He responded by saying "I'm not going to kiss his rings". And there are three of them to kiss with a fourth possibly on its way in a couple of weeks.
There are many things to like about Ryan's hiring for Bills fans. First, here is what would have been the main reason not to hire him: The Bills challenges over the past two years have been on the offensive side of the ball. Without a franchise quarterback, the offence sputtered under Doug Marrone who, as a former offensive lineman in the NFL, was hired to help find a quarterback and, when they settled on EJ Manuel, to bring him and the Bills offence along. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz handled the defence brilliantly last season and most Bills fans would have agreed that the defence needed little or no tweaking going into 2015. But Ryan is a defensive coach and his arrival last week led to the departure of Schwartz only a few days later. With no obvious solution at quarterback, Ryan has hired former 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman to run the Bills offence. Roman's focus has been on a power running game - and that might suit the Bills personnel well if CJ Spiller returns but winning teams in the NFL are able to throw the ball effectively more now than ever. So, we'll see.
The press conference last Wednesday where Ryan was introduced was great to watch. Ryan has a certain swagger and, combined with his sense of humour and folksy charm, he will endear himself to the fan base easily. And, for the first time since the Bills hired former Rams coach Chuck Knox in 1978, Rex Ryan is a name - an experienced NFL head coach who has spent the last 6 years in New York. Other than Knox, Ralph Wilson's coaching hires, including Marv Levy, were either coordinators getting their first head coaching job or re-tread coaches who came cheap (like Levy was). Ryan brings a measure of credibility to the Bills who really needed it after Doug Marrone mysteriously "opted out" on New Year's Eve. But, as one of the WGR guys said last week, Ryan can have the most hilarious press conferences the Buffalo media has ever seen but if he can't find an NFL serviceable quarterback to lead the offence, he won't seem that funny after a few weeks.
So, after all the wild card machinations of the last two weeks of the NFL season, and with 10 of the 11 NFL playoff games in the books, we are left with the two top conference seeds: The Patriots and the Seahawks. This looks like a great match-up for the Superbowl. Yesterday's conference championship games were a study in contrast with one being a classic overtime thriller and the other not really competitive at all. Watching the Packers collapse yesterday, which included giving up an onside kick, I couldn't help wondering how their playoff run would have turned out had they been able to beat the Bills in week 15 and play the NFC Championship game at Lambeau instead of in Seattle.
Finally, I visited my friend and long-time colleague JS last week who has been knocked back by a medical issue. Get well soon. The Cowboys need you and so do the rest of us.
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