After Rex Ryan was fired by the Bills, defensive tackle Marcell Dareus complained that there was too much detail in Ryan’s defense. That didn’t sit well with one of Ryan’s old players.
Bart Scott, who played his entire 11-year career in Ryan’s defense, first with the Ravens and then with the Jets, said on CBS Sports Radio that the Bills’ biggest mistake was giving a big contract to Dareus.
“That might sum the whole thing up – because that’s the guy that you gave $100 million,” Scott said.
Scott noted that Dareus was suspended for the first four games of this season for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
“Instead of reading his playbook, he was too busy lighting up,” Scott said. “Are you serous? First of all, I’ve been in this system my entire career. Eleven years, I’ve been in this system. As a defensive lineman, you only have like four [or five] fronts. Man, if you can’t remember five fronts, I don’t know what to tell you, bro. We can’t put the playbook in crayon.”
Scott implied that Dareus isn’t very smart if he can’t learn Ryan’s defense.
“I’ve had teammates that were special needs in high school and college,” Scott said. “I played with at least four teammates that were dyslexic and they picked it up. So Marcell Dareus needs to be reevaluated. I don’t know what his Wonderlic was, but for him to say that defense was complicated, I don’t know.”
Scott is blunt, but he has a point: It’s a player’s job to learn the playbook. If Dareus can’t do that job, he’s not worth anything close to that six-year, $100 million contract the Bills gave him.