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Perhaps there’s some credence to what he’s saying, but why go there?
As most of you know by now, ESPN’s Rex Ryan insulted Bill Belichick and Geno Smith in one quote.
“Let’s give [Belichick] somebody else, let’s give him Geno Smith, let’s give him whoever, and let’s see how many Super Bowls he would have won,” Ryan said. “We saw the answer was zero in Cleveland.”
Smith blasted Ryan on Twitter for this cheap shot, but we don’t need to get into all that.
A few thoughts on this.
First of all, while Belichick benefitted a great deal by having Brady, he also benefitted a great deal from learning from his mistakes in Cleveland, and improving as a head coach his second time around.
Ryan didn’t do that.
Ryan got fired by the Jets, got hired by the Bills, and essentially changed nothing from the approach that got him fired with the Jets. He continued to make bombastic statements he couldn’t back up, and also fielded an undiciplined team.
And one of the reasons his team wasn’t very good in Buffalo was based on the biggest mistake he made – he didn’t make wholesale changes to his coaching staff. He brought his merry men with him from Florham Park to Orchard Park.
If Terry Pegula had asked me about Rex Ryan before hiring him (not that he ever would, just talking hypothetically), I would have said, “If you hire him, he needs to blow up his staff.”
That was a bad staff, including some people who perhaps partied too much.
Rex has got to understand, it’s not his job as a head coach to be an employment agency to his friends and family, but instead to put together the best darn staff possible.
The Pegula’s hired Ryan because they were football novices at the time, and fell for the cult of personality, as new owners are wont to do. We all know Rex can light up a room with his personality.
But man, he learned nothing from his mistakes with the Jets,
And one of those mistakes was sticking with struggling players too long, or throwing high draft picks on the field before they were ready, like Calvin Pryor.
And this pertains to Smith. Why did Rex feel that a second-round quarterback, out of college spread offense that doesn’t translate to the NFL, should start immediately?
Then in Smith’s second year, Rex had a chance to go with Michael Vick,, but only did it for a few games. Vick was clearly the better option, but Ryan insisted on going with Smith.
I once asked Ryan a very sarcastic question, that I probably shouldn’t have, but it came out of my mouth at the time, because of how ridiculous it was to start Smith ahead of Vick.
“What does Michael Vick need to do to get to Geno Smith’s level?” I asked.
It was so preposterous to start Smith ahead of Vick. The whole locker room new Vick was better.
So Rex, you can trash Smith all you want, but you had Vick, and you still went with Smith.
I will have Part II of Ryan vs. Belichick/Smith on Friday.
April 9, 2020
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