Inside The Bills

Report: Pettine hired as Bills DC

Jets head coach Rex Ryan said his defensive coordinator Mike Pettine would not be back with his club and would be interviewing Tuesday for Buffalo’s defensive coordinator post. According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, a day later Pettine has been hired by the Bills for that very position.

As expected, the Bills have hired Mike Pettine as defensive coordinator. Pettine had been with Jets previous four seasons.

— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) January 9, 2013

Pettine’s defenses have ranked in the top 10 in each of his four seasons with the Jets. At his season wrap up press conference Rex Ryan said he wished Pettine well, unless he went to the Bills.

Ryan: Pettine will interview with Bills today

Jets head coach Rex Ryan is speaking at his season wrap up press conference and confirmed that defensive coordinator Mike Pettine is interviewing with the Bills today and will be coaching somewhere else next season.

“Mike Pettine is going to have several opportunities as a defensive coordinator,” said Ryan. “Today I know he interviews with the Buffalo Bills. I’m hoping he doesn’t take that job. I hope he goes somewhere else. Mike and I have been together for over 10 years. He’s a tremendous coach. We’ve had conversations. Mike thinks it’s best that he go to a different team as a defensive coordinator, and I wish him all the best unless he goes to Buffalo. But I love Mike and I respect him.”

Ryan certainly doesn’t want to see his now former defensive coordinator show up coaching another defense in the AFC East. It obviously means he’d have to face him twice a year.

Ryan also announced that veteran special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff also won’t be back with the Jets. Westhoff is reportedly going to retire. Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano was also fired.

Jets switch to Sanchez as starter Sunday

After Rex Ryan announced on his conference call with the Buffalo media that he was going to start Greg McElroy at quarterback Sunday against the Bills, he had to reverse his course and announce he’s startin Mark Sanchez.

Ryan in his Thursday press conference said McElroy revealed to the medical staff that he was experiencing concussion-like symptoms after being sacked 11 times in last week’s loss to San Diego.

“Mark has had success earlier in the season against Buffalo,” Ryan said. “He’s very familiar with them. That’s the reason I’m going with Mark. I had the conversation with both Mark and Tim…. about what I was going to do. Obviously, Tim’s not happy with that. That’s what you expect.”

The New York Daily News is reporting that Ryan said the need to make a quick call on the change, prompted him to lean toward Sanchez, rather than Tebow with Ryan indicating with just Thursday and Friday practice before Sunday’s game that they might not be able to get Tebow up to speed in time rep-wise.

Jets to turn to read option?

The Bills have had their share of trouble with the read option game the past two weeks with Seattle working that part of their offense very effectively and Miami getting some positive plays out of it as well against Buffalo in their victories. The Bills last opponent of the season, the Jets, arguably have one of the better read option quarterbacks in Tim Tebow, but will they make use of him Sunday?

Head coach Rex Ryan didn’t use Tebow in their Wildcat package last Sunday because Tebow asked not to be a part of that package. That according to ESPN New York. Slot receiver Jeremy Kerley was used instead in the Jets’ 27-17 loss to San Diego.

That same report indicates that Tebow and Ryan have since smoothed things over. On his conference call with Buffalo media, Ryan was asked in light of the recent success of the read option against Buffalo if he would make use of it, be it Tebow or Kerley.

“Obviously you’ll look at things that maybe have worked against an opponent or whatever,” said Ryan. ”A lot of things go into it. We played that Seattle team and you can say the same thing: they had success running it against us running that so we’re certainly going to prepare for it as well. When you look at what Seattle has, they have a lot of things that are hard to defend. They’ve got the receivers, the quarterback — and he can do different things. Could we possibly do it? The answer is yes and we hope they spend the majority of their practice working on it.

“It helps obviously if you can mix something like that in to keep a team honest or whatever. I can assure you that Buffalo has those plays in and we have those plays in as well. I think preparation goes into it as well, how much time you actually prepare for it. I remember when we played Buffalo we were going to try and surprise them and they came out and smoked our Wildcat so apparently they did some preparing for it, that’s for sure.”

McElroy to start at QB for Jets

The Jets will have Greg McElroy start again this week at quarterback Sunday against the Bills.

Head coach Rex Ryan told the Buffalo media that this afternoon on his conference call.

“We’ll start Greg,” said Ryan. ”The type of beating he took last week, 11 sacks and things, he’s tougher than nails. We knew that about him. The previous year he’d be our clean-up guy in the preseason games and I’m not sure some of those guys could’ve blocked me. He definitely took a beating then and he took one unfortunately this past week. He is a tough guy. He’s smart.

“He is pretty good about knowing where to go with the football, but any time you have that kind of performance, unfortunately a lot of credit goes to your opponent, but there are also mistakes, clearly, that we made. Some of it was our guys getting beat, some were on protection, some were Greg’s fault for holding it too long or not being in the right spot. Others were depth of routes and things. There’s a lot of it to go around, that’s for sure.”

How Jets are prepping for Mario

The Jets know they’re going to need to provide help to their starting right tackle Austin Howard, as he makes his first NFL start Sunday against Mario Williams. Here’s how New York is preparing for Buffalo’s prized free agent signing.

“You’re not kidding it’s a big challenge, hehe,” said Rex Ryan. ”I think the only way you can get a bigger challenge is if it was DeMarcus Ware. Clearly it’s a huge challenge. We’ll line up a guy offside and everything else in practice,” said Jets head coach Rex Ryan.

Ironically, the Jets are using Aaron Maybin on the scout team as their Mario Williams.

“We’re going to have Aaron Maybin play him over there, and we’ll line him up offsides and say get ready to chase this guy. He’s a combination speed, power, he’s got it all. Certainly its going to be a huge challenge for anybody. With Austin, he hasn’t had a whole lot of game experience, but we feel good about him. He’s a huge man that can bend. He’s a guy that’s kind of a road grader in the running game, so I think that’ll help as well.”

When asked about Maybin not exactly being the same physical stature of Williams, who is 50 pounds heavier, Ryan explained why they chose to use Maybin.

“I think that’s the best we could do,” said Ryan. ”We’re going to put (Quinton) Coples over there some as well, but I’m trying to get that quickness of a guy that can get off the football like Mario does, and with that kind of speed. In the run, we’re going to put Coples over there even though he’s starting on defense. We’re going to have him as a scout teamer as well to be like Mario. He’s not as big as Mario but he’s pretty talented in his own right, and you guys will find that out too. He ended being part of a sack in each of the preseason games, and this young man has the potential to be a good football player.”

Coples led the NFL in preseason sacks with 4.5, though he played in five preseason games this summer. Do you think Coples steal the pass rushing show in Week 1?

Respect for Mario

Jets head coach Rex Ryan isn’t thrilled to see Mario Williams in his division, but he did manage to find a silver lining after the Bills signed him in free agency.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, please don’t, please don’t,’” Ryan recalled. ”But you know what, in a way it was funny because I was like, ‘Oh great, if we can survive the two weeks against him, it would be a positive that he gets to go hit Tom Brady.’ So I thought that was a real positive. It is kind of exciting to get great football players within the division, there’s no doubt. Obviously you wish those players were on your team, but the fact that he went to Buffalo, it’s like, ‘Oh boy.’

“He’s a tremendous football player…I can tell you this, our tackle’s probably not sleeping very well this week, there’s no doubt. I know I wouldn’t be if I had to go against him.”

The Jets starting right tackle this week is Austin Howard, a former practice squad player of the Ravens, signed by the Jets last season. He does not have an NFL start on his resume.

Rex unsure Wildcat will slow Bills pass rush

Jets head coach Rex Ryan has insisted that they will use their version of the Wildcat package with Tim Tebow this Sunday against the Jets, despite not revealing any of it in the preseason. While Ryan is confident in the package with Tebow, he’s not sure it’s going to neutralize Buffalo’s pass rush.

“I don’t know about that,” Ryan said on a Wednesday conference call. ”With Super Mario over there, that’s gonna be tough. There’s no question. Clearly this team can really rush the passer. They added Mark Anderson as well, and the other guy too that I always think is underrated is Kyle Williams. We voted him to the Pro Bowl when he was healthy. I’m happy for him to see him back out there, but I wish he could have waited a week because he is a tremendous player. So that pass rush is definitely going to be tough.

“How the wildcat comes in? David Lee, I have so much respect for David Lee, I think he’s a tremendous quarterback coach and a football coach in general. He was with Tony (Sparano) and they put in the wildcat and brought the wildcat to the league. Clearly we know that Buffalo is going to see it and practice against it with Brad (Smith) there. But of course we’re gonna run some. We like Tim running that Wildcat, so we’ll see.”

Sunday an elimination game?

Mathematically Sunday’s game between the Bills and Jets is being viewed by outside observers as an elimination game in terms of playoff contention. What do those directly involved in the game think?

With both teams at 5-5 and neither likely to catch the Patriots for the division title, it’s about the Wild Card race for the Jets and Bills. Here’s what Jets head coach Rex Ryan thinks.

“I don’t know if its win or go home, but it’s about as close as you can get to that,” he said. ”Both teams know it, obviously Buffalo knows that and we know that. So no team is going to deny that fact.”

Bills vet Chris Kelsay also knows whichever team drops this one is going to make themselves a supreme long shot for the postseason.

“There are a handful of teams competing for the last Wild Cart spot and we’re two of them,” said Kelsay. ”So obviously if you get beat by these guys, one they’ve swept us and two it looks like our chances for the playoffs are pretty slim. So it’s a huge game for us.”

Jets Greene looking good for Sun.

Jets RB Shonn Greene left their last game in Denver with a rib injury, but has practiced each of the last two days giving New York head coach Rex Ryan confidence that he’ll be playing against the Bills on Sunday.

“I think Shonn will play this week and we’re excited to get him back in the lineup,” said Ryan. ”I think he got hurt on the second possession of the game and did not return, and obviously we had LT out. So hopefully we’ll have both of those guys back this week, that’s what we’re hopeful of.”

LaDainian Tomlinson however, is not practicing again today as he missed practices by the Jets on Monday and Tuesday as well. The Jets were practicing early in the week because they played last Thursday night. If L.T. can’t go it means Joe McKnight is the complementary back to Greene.

Bills to get same looks?

With the Cowboys employing the brother of Jets head coach Rex Ryan as their defensive coordinator, it’s anticipated that the Bills offense will see a lot of similar looks Sunday against Dallas.

Buffalo’s coaching staff is convinced that the Ryans swap playbook material all the time to help one another out with opponents that both of their teams face, and in this case in consecutive weeks.

When asked about whether such conversations took place between the Ryans, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett didn’t deny it. 

“I know they’re very close, so I’m sure they speak a lot week in and week out. I don’t know any specifics regarding this game, but they do speak and do stay in touch,” said Garrett.

Dallas much like the Jets are likely to play a good amount of quarters coverage, but not as much man from start to finish knowing they don’t have the same talent on the boundaries at cornerback as the Jets.

But with pass rushers like DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer man coverage is an option they can go to knowing they usually get help up front with pressure on the opposing QB.

Dwan is ‘Big Wiggle’

Jets head coach Rex Ryan was Dwan Edwards defensive line coach and later his defensive coordinator in Baltimore before the defensive lineman came to the Bills. Ryan referred to Edwards by the nickname he had with the Ravens in his conference call with the WNY media.

Ryan showed his knowledge of football history in comparing his former player and Marcell Dareus to an old defensive line tandem from Buffalo’s storied AFL past.

“I know Dareus, the way he’s playing and the way Big Wiggle as I used to call him is playing, Edwards, they remind me of Ron McDole and that Tom Sestak, that No. 70 that used to play in the AFL days,” said Ryan.

Edwards admitted that ‘Big Wiggle’ was a nickname given to him as a rookie, but that another teammate gave it to him, not Ryan. In any event it stuck while he was with the Ravens. And during his time there he knows Ryan taught him a lot about the game.

“I loved him, I still have a lot for respect for the guy,” said Edwards. ”Definitely want to beat him on Sunday.  He was my defensive line coach coming in so I learned a lot from him. He’s a competitive guy, he wants to win.  He wants his team to believe they’re the best team in the world regardless if they are or aren’t.”

More run for Maybin?

Jets OLB Aaron Maybin has been a spot player for New York thus far this season getting about 10-12 plays a game. But according to Jets head coach Rex Ryan his snap count could be increasing this week.

“Yeah that’s a real possibility because Buffalo does spread you out,” said Ryan. ”But it’s not like the old spread where you throw out of it. Buffalo spreads you out to run it as well. We understand what their philosophy is and we’ll adjust accordingly.”

It sounds like Ryan is a bit conflicted in terms of whether to play a heavier lineup to defend the run, which would take Maybin off the field, or play a quicker lineup to keep up with Buffalo’s array of receiving threats, which would put Maybin on the field.

Either way Ryan likes what they’ve gotten out of Maybin. 

“I think what everybody sees is a guy that has some pass rush ability, and that’s why we picked him up,” Ryan said. ”He flashed that in the preseason. But when we had an opportunity through an injury we were able to bring Aaron back and that’s kind of the role he’s taken over, is that of a pass rusher for us, and he’s done a tremendous job for us.”

Jets underrated DT back?

According to one report Jets underrated DT Mike DeVito could be back in New York’s defensive lineup on Sunday.

Rex Ryan’s guarantee

Jets head coach Rex Ryan is talking big again. He just laid out a Super Bowl guarantee.

In his opening statement before even taking questions he said he knows he thought his team could win a Super Bowl in each of his first two seasons, but today at the NFL combine he guaranteed that they will win the Super Bowl in 2011.

“I believe this is the year we’re going to win Super Bowl,” Ryan said. ”I guarantee we’ll win it this year.”

“I’m putting myself out there because I believe,” said Ryan. ”And I’m not afraid to stand up here and say that we’re going to get it done.”

He did say the key is getting some home playoff games. The Jets have advanced to the AFC Championship game playing on the road in the playoffs each of the past two seasons.

Rex Ryan’s Pro Bowl card

Jets head coach Rex Ryan had some bouquets to throw at the Bills regarding the Pro Bowl.

Ryan didn’t check the whole Pro Bowl list for the AFC in terms of who made it and who did not, but he did feel that Kyle Williams was worthy.

“I love Kyle Williams,” said Ryan. ”I haven’t really studied the Pro Bowl list, but if he never made it there’s something wrong because that guy plays his tail off.”

Ryan also said he voted for Ryan Fitzpatrick for the Pro Bowl.

“I’ve gone against him several times now,” said Ryan. “He’s a good quarterback. I voted him into the Pro Bowl on my list. Besides the obvious guys, the big three (Manning, Brady, Rivers). He was my fourth guy on the list.”

Ryan changes mind on Sanchez

After initially learning his team was in the playoffs after the Jets’ loss to Chicago last Sunday, Jets head coach Rex Ryan said he’d probably rest QB Mark Sanchez and his sore throwing shoulder in their season finale against the Bills. Now after further thought, he’s leaning toward playing him.

On a conference call Monday, Ryan explained his thinking.

Ryan knows Maybin well

Jets head coach Rex Ryan knows Aaron Maybin a bit more than the average NFL head coach that doesn’t have him on their roster.

That’s because Ryan’s kids went to the same high school as Maybin in Baltimore when he was the Ravens’ defensive coordinator.

“When he came out of high school I thought he was the real deal,” said Ryan. “Even at Penn State I think he does have pass rush skills. He’s got an outstanding get-off, he can turn the edge on you. The production isn’t there initially, but you’ve got to be patient with the guy and Chan knows that. It’s probably just a matter of time before that kid turns the corner.

“Vernon Gholston has really turned the corner for us. A guy like Dwan Edwards, who I had in Baltimore struggled initially and then he became an outstanding player. I think you just have to patient. I think this young man will be an outstanding pass rusher. I just hope it’s not this week.”

Jets’ Pace a possibility

The Jets have played their first three games without some of their most talented defenders. They lost DT Kris Jenkins to a torn ACL in the opener, lost Revis the next week and have been without top pass rusher Calvin Pace. But Rex Ryan has his fingers crossed that he’ll have Pace for passing downs at the very least on Sunday.

“I hope so,” said Ryan. “He’s probably our best pass rusher. You have Jason Taylor and him, that would be a pretty good combination on the outside for us. Quite honestly we’re struggling a little bit in our pass defense and we’re not getting the heat on the quarterback that we’d like to get. That would definitely be a shot in the arm if we could get Calvin back.”

Pace sustained a foot injury in the preseason and has not played yet in the regular season.

Ryan not ruling out Revis

Jets head coach Rex Ryan is not sure about the availability of Darrelle Revis for Sunday’s game against the Bills, but at this point he’s not ruling him out either.

“I’m not so sure about Darrelle,” said Ryan. “His hamstring is coming along. He’s doing a great job of getting treatment, getting about 12 hours a day worth, but unless he’s 100 percent I really don’t want to put him out there. I’d love to have him play this week, but I’m not so sure right now.”

When asked point blank if he’s ruling Revis out for the game here on Wednesday, Ryan said he was not.

“No, I never said that,” said Ryan. “I only make that statement when I know it to be true. Right now I can’t say that. We haven’t even had practice yet today.”