The 2016 Bills may not end their playoff drought, but at least they’ll still be interesting.
Two guys who once shared a womb will share a sideline in Buffalo, with head coach Rex Ryan bringing twin brother Rob Ryan to town. The Bills announced the move on Sunday night.
Setting aside for now the question of whether G.M. Doug Whaley may be miffed that his contract-extension moment was undermined by the latest bloodline hire in the Nepotism Football League, it’s an intriguing arrangement that had never happened during Rex’s years as a head coach.
“I’m excited to have Rob join our staff and I think he will be a great asset for our defense. He has a tremendous working knowledge of our schemes and I look forward to his input,” Rex Ryan said in the press release announcing the move. “On a personal note, it’s been a number of years since we have worked together and so we are both really looking forward to this opportunity.”
Rex possibly wanted to hire Rob when Rex became the head coach of the Jets in 2009; it’s unclear whether Rob truly wanted to be released by the Browns so that he could join Rex. Since then, Rob has been available on multiple occasions but Rex had never hired him. That said, Rob arguably has always had multiple, five-minute-or-less viable options; after presiding over an epic defensive collapse in New Orleans in 2014 and 2015 (he actually had a strong impact on the defense in 2013), Rob may have had a hard time finding work with anyone other than a member of his immediate family.
But the fact that Rob became the in-season scapegoat for the Saints overlooks real issues with the defensive personnel in New Orleans. Besides, if it’s true that owner Terry Pegula has made this a playoffs-or-bust season for the Ryan and Whaley, why shouldn’t Rex pull out all the stops and bring in a twin who may not be the same from a DNA perspective, but looks and acts like the closest thing to identical that two fraternal twins have ever been.