As Sheryl Crow famously sang, “A change would do you good.” That was the sentiment for many Bills fans as the offseason approaches, wanting head coach Rex Ryan or general manager Doug Whaley fired from their respective positions after the team missed the postseason for the 16th consecutive season.
Heck, some fans wanted Bills owner Terry Pegula to clean house and get a new head coach and general manager.
But in this case, I’m disagreeing with Crow and the Bills Mafia, as both should remain in their respective positions. Now, while Whaley probably has a better case of staying than Ryan, neither deserved to be canned from their duties.
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In Whaley’s case, he is the one who put the talent on this team. He is the reason that
LeSean McCoy,
Karlos Williams,
Richie Incognito,
Tyrod Taylor, etc. You get the point of it. He is the one who put this talented team together. The reason that it did not come together would be the coaching and that is where the second case comes in.
Rex Ryan is a defensive genius and I have been a proponent that a good coach should always adjust his coaching scheme to the talent he has on the field, not the other way around. Ryan tried doing it the other way around and we saw what happens when that is the case. An underachieving team that should have ended its playoff drought this season.
But why do you not fire the head coach? You do not give players a third scheme in as many years to dive into. You let them gel with the coach and the coach gel with the players. I would wait to see what happens this offseason.
Rex Ryan now has a full offseason to develop the talent that he wants in his scheme and find the gaps so that he can get players that fit the defense. I think they need a true 3-4 end to go with Hughes and Kyle Williams, and then bolstering the linebacker talent and finding a dependable nickel corner would help.
With Whaley’s talent-finding ability, you better bet that he’s going to find the best talent possible to fit this scheme.
But that’s for another day. Right now, the Pegulas did the right thing in keeping Whaley and Ryan. They haven’t done anything in deserving to be fired.