You know that hiring Rex Ryan is high risk, high reward. He’s a brash, confident, engaging, interesting, fun-to-watch head coach. He also comes with a lot of baggage, and we’re not talking about the extra pounds he packs on his frame. Yes, his personality and his ego is as big as his physical frame and that sometimes rubs people the wrong way.
Sure, his players love him and they’ll fight for him…or maybe not so much this time?
From CBS Sports’ “That Other Pregame Show” on Rex Ryan’s Future with Buffalo Bills)
BRANDON TIERNEY: “The one thing I always thought Rex had was the support of his players. I reconciled long ago that on Sundays he is messy with the clock. He is messy with timeouts. He is more bluster than actual execution. But the thing that man could always say is that the players that ran out behind him in the tunnel, they loved playing for him. They had his back. He resonated in the locker room. Now you seem to get the complete opposite. Star players are speaking out. His greatest strength (is the support of his players). If that’s compromised or if that has eroded the way I think it may have, you might have to start kicking the tires for a new head coach in Buffalo.”
If Rex Ryan has actually lost the locker room, then indeed it’s all over for him in Buffalo. If you’re a coach and you’ve lost your players then you are finished. At least in that gig. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. The Bills did eke out an ugly victory over a hapless Dallas Cowboys team today, but what does that really prove?
Credit Rex Ryan for this though- a win next week gets Buffalo a .500 finish for the season. Not ideal or fantastic by any means. It’s certainly not the goal for the Bills, but consider where this franchise has been lately. It’s only year one for Rex Ryan.
Maybe a .500 season is just the start of something better? Might be too early to pull the trigger on considering a Rex Ryan replacement.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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