The Buffalo Bills were a disaster in 2016 and the result was head coach Rex Ryan losing his job.
Now we have a bit of insight as to what went wrong.
Mostly, it was Ryan propping up his brother so much it turned the rest of the coaching staff sour. Rob Ryan, who managed to fizzle out in New Orleans as his supposed defensive prowess didn’t show on the field, basically acted as a co-coach, according to Gary Myers of the New York Daily News:
According to a well-placed source, Rex Ryan basically dedicated the 2016 season to resurrecting the reputation of his brother Rob, who most recently had been fired by the Cowboys and Saints. Rob was not the Bills defensive coordinator but had the run of the place. He was almost the co-head coach. It backfired on Rex and they both got canned. Bills owner Terry Pegula was so anxious to end the Ryan reign of error that he let him go with three years and $16.5 million left on his contract. Rex was so concerned about his brother that the staff became dysfunctional.
A lengthy wall of text there, but it’s an almost baffling set of circumstances and insight we didn’t have before. Rex threw his own reputation and job on the line for his brother regardless of how it hurt the team.
Some would say his heart was in the right place, yet it can’t feel good for Bills fans to hear their team was merely a rehab project for a Ryan brother.
The consequences of the failure? Rex gets to join ESPN and the Bills head for something of a rebuild.
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