Inside The Bills

Rex wanted re-con from Trent

The New York Jets were the one other team that put a waiver claim in on Trent Edwards Tuesday, along with the Jaguars who were awarded the former Bills QB. But Ryan’s intentions were decidedly different than that of Jacksonville and he wasn’t afraid to admit it.

“I think we’re just trying to fill our team with a lot of good football players, and the fact that he could’ve helped us is also a truth,” said Ryan chuckling. “We think it would’ve helped us to get an idea of this Buffalo offense. That would have been a little plus.”

Though the Jaguars are having far more production problems at quarterback than the Jets, you wonder if Jacksonville had the same idea knowing they’d be facing Buffalo in a week and a half.

Trap game for Jets?

The New York media is billing this Sunday’s game between the Jets and Bills as a classic trap game for Rex Ryan’s team. After a hard fought road win at Miami Sunday night, the Jets will face Minnesota the week after playing Buffalo for the much anticipated Brett Favre reunion game.

Call it whatever you want, but it didn’t sound like Rex Ryan lacked any respect for the Bills, who called them a “tough and determined team.”

Ryan also remembered the loss the Bills handed the Jets in their building last season when they forced six turnovers including five interceptions by Mark Sanchez to win 16-13 in overtime despite over 300 yards rushing by New York.

“We rushed for (318) yards and lose the game,” Ryan said Monday. “I don’t think that’s probably ever happened in this league.”

Buffalo is aiming to tighten up their run defense after surrendering 200 yards on the ground last week to New England. New York meanwhile is focused on locking down their pass defense after Chad Henne threw for 363 yards last week. Knowing they could be without Darrelle Revis again this week, their approach to the Buffalo pass game will be interesting.

And if a good portion of the Jets roster wants to look past Buffalo and think about Favre and the Vikings that’ll be fine too.

Rex’s comment very telling

Jets head coach Rex Ryan has hinted before about his belief that at some point he’ll lose offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to a head coaching job. But after the win over the Bengals he was the most telling he has ever been on the subject.

When asked about Schottenheimer’s play calling performance in the Wild Card win over Cincinnati last weekend, Ryan not only praised his coordinator, but explained how he has pretty much resigned himself to the fact that Schottenheimer will be gone after the Jets’ playoff run comes to an end. Here was his comment to Jets reporters after the game.

“I really don’t want to be honest what I think, because I want him here,” said Ryan of Schottenheimer. ”He did a great job of mixing in the run and the pass and he called the game like a head coach. We could have called some more passes or some different plays, but we wanted to control the clock. Before the two-minute, he took a lot of time off the clock and just doing a tremendous job. I realize we’re only going to have him for as long as we’re in this tournament, but we enjoy having him right now.”

You’ve got to wonder if Ryan knows something that nobody else knows, or if he’s just talking up Schottenheimer in an effort to get him interviewed. I suspect the latter. Ryan and Schottenheimer share a lot in common. Both grew up under fathers that coached in the league, and Ryan waited a long time to get a head coaching job. He clearly believes Schottenheimer is worthy of a head coaching role and is doing what he can to put his name out there.

Ryan on his brash talk

As most NFL fans know, Jets head coach Rex Ryan doesn’t mince words. Some people call it arrogance. Ryan apparently doesn’t care.

“When I came in here, I wanted to make sure that ‘the same old Jets’ (credo) doesn’t sit well with me,” said Ryan. ”We came here to win. My thing is that it’s a level playing field. Every, single team in the league operates under the same budget. So for me to come in and not say that I want to win a Super Bowl. I think it’s ridiculous for me to come in and undersell and overproduce.

“All that sounds great. You can be coaching a long time if you do that. That’s for somebody else. That’s for some B.S. guy. You go .500 and all of a sudden you’re like, ‘This guy is a helluva coach’ because you’ve been telling teams, ‘Oh, I got to build and build.’ Well bull! You’ve got the same budget that everybody else does. To me, that’s unacceptable. We’re trying to win everything. We’re trying to win it all.

“If people have a tough time with that, if that’s being arrogant or whatever, then so be it. I know one thing, if I’m a fan of a football team I want my coach and my organization committed to winning.”

In his conference call with the Buffalo media, Ryan also joked about picking a fight with someone on Buffalo’s team after much was made about his war of words with Dolphins LB Channing Crowder.

“Hey, Buffalo should be no different,” said Ryan. ”It seems like nobody likes me. I’m not going to get into a verbal match with, let me see, whose their best player? T.O. ‘Ryan challenges T.O. to a fight.’ That’s kind of fun, but that’s not it at all. I respect everybody in this league.”

Ryan raves about Jim Leonhard

Former Bills safety Jim Leonhard was a guy Jets head coach Rex Ryan had his eye on for a long time.

Ryan actually wanted to sign him out of college after he went undrafted, but Buffalo obviously landed him. But when Leonhard was out there and available after Buffalo released him in 2008, Ryan, then Baltimore’s defensive coordinator did a lot to get him on his roster.

“He’s smart, he’s tough, he’s durable and just a heck of a football player,” said Ryan. “When he came to our place in Baltimore it was actually on a two-day tryout. And then when I told Ozzie [Newsome, the Ravens GM] I really liked him and how much we really needed him and I wanted him to go through training camp, we had actually just drafted two safeties.

“Of course, we had Ed Reed and Duwan Landry, so we were set at our starters when we drafted two safeties, yet I still wanted Jim Leonhard because I knew he was a heck of a  football player, a special football player. Ozzie said ‘You can have him, but you’ve got to cut three players (laughing).’ So we cut those three guys and Jim’s now playing with me and the Jets and doing a great job.”

Rex Ryan talked to brother about Bills

Jets head coach Rex Ryan was up front about having conversations with his twin brother Rob Ryan, who is the defensive coordinator of the Browns.

Rob Ryan’s defense was very effective against the Bills defense last week, though Buffalo did a lot to help by way of 11 penalties among other negative plays. And the Jets head coach admitted that he talked to him this week and might do so again before the week is out.

“I will. I’ll definitely do that since he just played them. Absolutely. We’ll talk about everything. Of course, you’ve got the tape and everything else. He recommended we get a punter that can punt it inside the 5 four or five times. That’s what his recommendation was.”

Ryan is referring to Browns punter Dave Zastudil, who punted seven balls inside the Bills 20, pinning Buffalo back deep in their own territory for most of the game. Either way you wonder just what one Ryan shared with the other leading up to this weekend’s game.

Leonhard to follow Ryan to Jets?

Former Bills safety Jim Leonhard made an awful lot of plays in Baltimore’s playoff run. Now that he’s set to become a free agent there’s a chance the Bills will be facing Leonhard twice a year.

Leonhard loves playing for Rex Ryan, now the new head coach of the Jets, and for Ryan the feeling is mutual as he tried to have the Ravens sign Leonhard as an undrafted rookie free agent out of Wisconsin.

With LBs Bart Scott and Ray Lewis as well as top pass rusher Terrell Suggs all free agents as well it’s unlikely the Ravens would have the cap room to re-sign Leonhard.

Ryan would likely want to sign Leonhard pretty quickly if he hit the free agent market, and Leonhard has stated more than once that he loves playing in Ryan’s defensive system.

Jets trying to keep Schottenheimer

According to the Daily News, Jets new head coach Rex Ryan is trying to hold onto offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Apparently they believe it may help them in convincing Brett Favre to come back as quarterback in 2009.

You might think the Jets are crazy for wanting to bring Favre back, but if he doesn’t come back, they’ve got Kellen Clemens. Best of luck, unless they draft a QB and despite the successes of Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan this year, they’re the exception, not the rule.

All Bills division rivals still 3-4 defenses

With Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan set to be named the new head coach of the Jets, it looks like the 3-4 defense will remain intact for Gang Green, meaning the entire division for Buffalo will continue to be 3-4 fronts.

In the first run through the division it was difficult for Trent Edwards to dissect and even harder for Buffalo’s offensive line to handle. To the Bills’ credit they were better the second time through the division against their division rivals including a season-high 187-yard rushing day against New York.

But the bottom line was the Bills were 1-8 against 3-4 fronts in 2008, and 6-1 against 4-3 fronts. If none of Buffalo’s 2009 opponents change their defensive schemes from this season the Bills will have seven games against 3-4 fronts next fall.

It’s likely that Eric Mangini will keep the 3-4 front that existed in Cleveland prior to his arrival. The only potential addition to the 3-4 front list on Buffalo’s 2009 schedule is Kansas City. Knowing GM Scott Pioli has seen the success of that front during his time in New England, it’s possible he’ll hire a coach that will make the Chiefs a 3-4 front as well.