Could this be the end of the Ryan family in the NFL?
Rex Ryan has never been one for half measures. His Mark Sanchez tattoo proved that. His 2012 lap-band surgery proved that. Absolutely everything else he has ever said or done proves that. So when he had the opportunity to hire his unemployed brother Rob after a mediocre 8-8 first season in Buffalo that left him open for criticism, he went all in. Charges of nepotism be damned: Rex brought in a guy who got fired last November by the Saints for leading a defense that was dead last in the NFL in almost every statistical category. If Rex Ryan is going to go down, he’s going to go down with his long-haired twin beside him.
Buffalo’s newest Ryan is now the associate head coach/defense with the Bills, a role that keeps Dennis Thurman as the official defensive coordinator while giving Rob a prestigious sounding job title and a significant role with the defense and the team overall. After winning two Super Bowl rings with the Patriots as the team’s linebackers coach in 2001 and 2003, Rob bounced around various defensive coordinator gigs from 2004 to 2015. He claims he turned down numerous jobs to go to Buffalo, but that’s a little hard to believe considering 12 years of middling results with four different teams culminated in the league’s worst D in New Orleans. If he was being offered coordinator jobs, he wasn’t the first choice of anyone whose last name isn’t Ryan. Finding success in Buffalo is Rob’s last chance to prove he should be anything more than a mid-level assistant.
That goes for both brothers. Rex now has an unimpressive 54-58 career record over seven NFL seasons. He was quickly picked up by Buffalo after flaming out with the Jets, but it will be tough to find another head coaching job so soon if the Bills also kick him to the curb. Tyrod Taylor had a breakout season at quarterback in 2015 and he is surrounded by top-tier weapons in Sammy Watkins and LeSean McCoy. In the draft, the Bills loaded up on defensive picks in the first three rounds, and last season’s 19th-ranked unit should markedly improve if Rob is one-tenth of the coach Rex thinks he is.
There is talent in Buffalo to win right now. That fact is what makes this season so important for the Ryan twins. If their mouths are again the only way they make noise, the Ryan family’s days in the NFL spotlight are likely over.
Do the Patriots have bigger problems than Tom Brady’s suspension?
It’s easy to see New England’s biggest hurdle this season being Tom Brady’s four-game absence for cellphone and deflation crimes against the NFL. It’s also easy to assume the Patriots will weather the suspension just fine and actually emerge better on the other side. And they probably will.
But Jimmy Garoppolo, who hasn’t started a real football game since losing to Towson University in 2013, will not necessarily be the weakest part of some otherwise flawless football team. Far from it. While Brady misses the first four games through suspension, the defense will also be without defensive end and team captain Rob Ninkovich for four games because of a PED ban. Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola didn’t play in any pre-season games because of assorted ailments, and running back Dion Lewis is out indefinitely after suffering a setback in his ACL rehab. That leaves receiver Julian Edelman as the only top-tier Patriots weapon opening the season at 100%, but who knows how long that will last? He’s only made it through 16 games once in his seven-year career.
If the Patriots had their druthers, Tom Brady would be playing week one and the whole roster would be healthy. The Patriots do not have their druthers. That opens up a chance, a slim chance, in the AFC East for others.
Can the Jets improve on 10-6 and make the playoffs?
The Jets entered week 17 last season controlling their playoff destiny – theoretically, at least. The Jets’ destiny is ultimately controlled by the cruelest of the football gods, the one that loves misery (and probably also created the abomination that is the modern catch rule). And so the Jets, a week after knocking off the hated Patriots in overtime for their fifth win in a row, collapsed with a loss in Buffalo to Rex Ryan and the Bills – their fate sealed with Ryan Fitzpatrick interceptions on each of their final three possessions.
There are two ways to view the 2015 season in relation to 2016: the optimistic view and the pessimistic/understandably jaded Jets fan view. The latter is clear. Same old Jets, they’ll always blow it when it counts, they’re so hopeless at the quarterback position that they had to cave and bring back Fitzpatrick, the tool of their destruction, et cetera, et cetera. And that thinking is rational and backed by historical precedence. But the optimistic view just so happens to have some merit, too. As disappointing as week 17 was, the Jets closed the season as one of the hottest teams in the NFL with wins in five of their last six games, fueling a huge six-game turnaround in Todd Bowles’ first season as a head coach. The addition of Matt Forte should only improve an offense with plenty of talent at the skill positions and one of the NFL’s better defenses added depth with three picks in the first four rounds of the draft. The Jets could regress in 2016, sure. Or they could get over the hump and nab their first playoff spot since 2010 behind one of the league’s most promising new head coaches. Either way, it will be the same old Jets: you won’t be able to look away.
Will Ryan Tannehill ever make the leap?
You don’t have to follow Miko Grimes on Twitter to know that Ryan Tannehill’s first four years in a Dolphins uniform have been an enigma. Brief glimpses of what the Dolphins have long hoped their quarterback would become surrounded by inconsistency and bad losses. Before the 2015 season, Miami extended Tannehill through the 2020 season with $77m in new money. The former Texas A&M receiver responded with a significant drop-off in production and his first 10-loss season as an NFL quarterback. Head coach Joe Philbin got fired and in his place is supposed quarterback guru Adam Gase.
The former Broncos and Bears coordinator will look to bring out Tannehill’s best, but the quarterback position is unfortunately not the only one in Miami that needs some fixing. A poor Dolphins defense will hope the Ndamukong Suh-led unit can get contributions from Mario Williams and Cameron Wake – both of whom are well past their career primes – and Eagles rejects Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell. It’s unlikely the defense will be any better, which is all the more reason Tannehill and the offense must improve. But the starting running back is Arian Foster, at least until he gets injured, Jarvis Landry and Kenny Stills highlight an unspectacular receiver corps and first-round pick Laremy Tunsil won’t be enough to fix a poor offensive line by himself. That leaves just Tannehill. Gase may be a quarterback whisperer, but he don’t be surprised if he whispers to the front office after the season that he wants another option under center.
Projected finish
Patriots 11-5
Bills 9-7
Jets 9-7
Dolphins 6-10
