Rex Ryan defense is back

[colin]

32 minutes ago, The Cincinnati Kid said:

Pretty sure he had Carson Palmer. 😂 

who got his knee destroyed on a low hit by pittz who went on to win a bowl

[SoonerBillsFan]

This is why we have more coaches now like a ILB coach and a separate OLB coach.   All they have to do is know their job on each call and check.

 

By doing this, you can be more complex overall, but make it simpler for the players.

[PrimeTime101]

so there is a difference.. Rex took a top 3 defense and turned it into a bottom 10 defense...  Now we taking a mid of leage defense at best and hopefully make it top 10. 

[The Frankish Reich]

Time for me to turn the house upside down looking for my copy of Collision Low Crossers. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333257-collision-low-crossers

[BigDingus]

20 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

 

There are some contentious claims in your post ("the offense blew it" as the definitive take on OT, without looking at THE REFS but then how rigid and vanilla and predictable the Bills D was when Jackson had to come in at CB). It was terribly obvious what the Broncos would do, and yet that seemed like news to McD and Babbich. WTF was that situational coaching job?

 

However, I do agree overall that McD seemed for the first time to be truly hamstrung by injuries and roster limitations, and mostly maximized results. Mostly. 

 

But see, the issues you're talking about are from AFTER the offense "blew it."

 

The Bills D got the stop. They gave the ball back to our MVP QB, best player on our team, and player who much of this board claims is the best player in the NFL, and said "go win this game."

 

He threw an interception... and now we're mad the defense didn't get ANOTHER OT stop? And at that point, all Denver needed was a FG... no way our D was going to hold them to another punt.

 

The D can definitely be blamed for past failures, but even in some of those games, Josh & the offense had an opportunity to score at the end of the game to win it... and they didn't. As good or bad as a coach can be, it's still up to the players to execute on the field.

 

There's a reason Josh was actually crying after this loss unlike the others - he knew his play was to fall back on his coach, friend & mentor, and that would likely lead to him being fired. 

 

I really wish they got rid of McDermott earlier, if only to spare Josh that kind of guilt & potential pressure. As good as he is, he's still only human, so going 0-4 against the Chiefs & feeling responsible for your coach getting fired has to take a toll on a person's mental health, especially in future clutch time situations. 

 

Maybe he's mentally strong & doesn't let this stuff get stuck in his head, but it must be difficult. 

[Buffalo716]

3 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

This is why we have more coaches now like a ILB coach and a separate OLB coach.   All they have to do is know their job on each call and check.

 

By doing this, you can be more complex overall, but make it simpler for the players.

In a 3-4 defense you actually need separate coaches for that spot 

 

They are not grouped together when they are in positional drills so you need two coaches 

 

Your inside linebackers and your outside linebackers are not doing the same positional drills

 

We had the same thing when we had Rex Ryan here running a 3-4

 

We had an outside linebackers coach and a general linebackers coach who then became ILB coach

Edited May 2 by Buffalo716

[hondo in seattle]

13 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

I don’t know if this makes it better or worse but the reality is they will almost certainly be around where they’ve been. If Josh stays healthy the Bills are pretty much a lock to win 10 games. I don’t believe in the Pats (at all). The Bills are a bigger betting favorite to win the division than any other team currently. That probably happens. That’s why I’ve always been fine to move on from McDermott. I don’t think that the floor moves much. Maybe the ceiling does but I don’t see a world where the Bills go out there and are 7-10 (assuming Josh’s health).

 

From there, that’s where the unknown creeps in. Do the Bills show up and lay an egg in the WC round? Do they get the big stop in the championship game? That is all TBD. The likeliest outcome IMO is probably about where they’ve been for the last bunch of years. The Bills are at the 2 yard line and have been for a few years. Hopefully they can punch it in.

 

Your POV is perfectly rational.

 

My view was a bit different.  After Hyde, Poyer, and Milano started to age out, and Diggs self-destructed, I felt like the two best people left in the organization were Josh (a great QB) and McD (a good, not great, coach).  McD excelled at a few things: culture building, teamwork, preparation, disguising pass defenses - but he was not a great X-and-O guy overall, nor a top-tier HC.

 

I'm not sure if the new coaching staff is better or worse than the old one.  My hunch is it's about the same.  I fear it might be a bit worse.  But, as you say, all it needs to do is punch it in from the 2.  Fingers perpetually crossed.  

 

 

[GunnerBill]

12 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

The thing about Wrex’s defenses is he made it so complicated, players are stunted by overthinking situations.  Leonard has not demonstrated that behavior neither at Wisconsin, nor in Denver.  To indicate Leonard is replicating Wrex is a mistake.  Leonard realized what he liked about a Rex defense, and made it better, faster, and far more attacking.

 

The other thing is Rex had mailed it in. Once he didn't have a roster to compete in New York he lost his mojo and the Rex Ryan we got by the time got here wasn't interested in teaching anyone his defense. He just wanted to roll it and out and tell everyone how great it was. 

 

It isn't just a modern twist on the scheme it's a coach stillnat the beginning of his career trying to prove himself. 

[Richard Noggin]

6 hours ago, BigDingus said:

 

But see, the issues you're talking about are from AFTER the offense "blew it."

 

The Bills D got the stop. They gave the ball back to our MVP QB, best player on our team, and player who much of this board claims is the best player in the NFL, and said "go win this game."

 

He threw an interception... and now we're mad the defense didn't get ANOTHER OT stop? And at that point, all Denver needed was a FG... no way our D was going to hold them to another punt.

 

The D can definitely be blamed for past failures, but even in some of those games, Josh & the offense had an opportunity to score at the end of the game to win it... and they didn't. As good or bad as a coach can be, it's still up to the players to execute on the field.

 

There's a reason Josh was actually crying after this loss unlike the others - he knew his play was to fall back on his coach, friend & mentor, and that would likely lead to him being fired. 

 

I really wish they got rid of McDermott earlier, if only to spare Josh that kind of guilt & potential pressure. As good as he is, he's still only human, so going 0-4 against the Chiefs & feeling responsible for your coach getting fired has to take a toll on a person's mental health, especially in future clutch time situations. 

 

Maybe he's mentally strong & doesn't let this stuff get stuck in his head, but it must be difficult. 

 

"He threw an interception" is crazy work. 

 

Yeah, I guess that's what was determined officially on that play. But to leverage that outcome so simply is obvious tomfoolery. I like some of the rest of your post, but dang. 

 

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

The other thing is Rex had mailed it in. Once he didn't have a roster to compete in New York he lost his mojo and the Rex Ryan we got by the time got here wasn't interested in teaching anyone his defense. He just wanted to roll it and out and tell everyone how great it was. 

 

It isn't just a modern twist on the scheme it's a coach stillnat the beginning of his career trying to prove himself. 

 

The Rex brothers' clownish lack of organization and discipline during their Bills tenure is deeply underreported. 

Edited May 2 by Richard Noggin

[Since1981]

6 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

Rex brothers' clownish lack of organization and discipline during their Bills tenure is deeply underreported

We just didn’t quite recognize it right away. The modern HC has to be a CEO-like ability beyond pure bullhorn and X and O. McD style and organization is certainly compare is jarring vs Rexy. 

[Augie]

I’d like to check with my therapist and my attorney to determine if the title of this thread is cause for action. 

[Maine-iac]

I've always thought that Rex got a lot of credit for Mike Pettine's work with the Jets.  Here Pettine (3-4 defense) actually took over for a mediocre Wahnstedt (4-3 defense)  and did well enough Cleveland hired him.  That's when Schwartz came in and we switched again to a 4 - 3.

Edited May 2 by Maine-iac

[jahbonas]

On 5/1/2026 at 11:05 AM, Green Lightning said:

I do get his point. My point is that while his theory does work in the aggregate, our failures in the playoffs come down to single events where we don't have the one elite player or make a key stop to win against the top teams. I am in, for the most part, the defense wins championships camp. The Bills have dominated the league during he regular season and fail against the tough D's we face in the playoffs - in that we are a play short, a stop short. I get the overall philosophy, I do. But we're not in the bowl because of our D.

You win by dominating in a phase of the game. The Rams won with the Greatest show on turf while Denver won with the pass rush of Miller n Duberville

The star on this team is the QB Josh Allen -  not an OLB like Lawrence Taylor - so you can dominate on offense not defense

[nuklz2594]

the QB must go down and go down hard...al davis

[BigDingus]

On 5/2/2026 at 12:57 AM, Richard Noggin said:

 

"He threw an interception" is crazy work. 

 

Yeah, I guess that's what was determined officially on that play. But to leverage that outcome so simply is obvious tomfoolery. I like some of the rest of your post, but dang. 

 

 

I get it. We all want to defend Josh. But he had FOUR TURNOVERS that game. 

 

Sorry, but I've seen nobody but Bills fans claim that wasn't an interception, and again, it was the 3rd straight year Josh has had the ball in his hands at the end of the game & failed to come away with the win.

 

I'm done making excuses for it. Josh threw an interception. Doesn't matter what should've, could've, would've happened, it was the FOURTH turnover. 

 

But yeah, let's blame McDermott's defense for that.

[Kirby Jackson]

38 minutes ago, BigDingus said:

 

I get it. We all want to defend Josh. But he had FOUR TURNOVERS that game. 

 

Sorry, but I've seen nobody but Bills fans claim that wasn't an interception, and again, it was the 3rd straight year Josh has had the ball in his hands at the end of the game & failed to come away with the win.

 

I'm done making excuses for it. Josh threw an interception. Doesn't matter what should've, could've, would've happened, it was the FOURTH turnover. 

 

But yeah, let's blame McDermott's defense for that.

Josh was not good in that game. The turnover before halftime was as inexcusable as any play in his career. 

McDermott’s defense gave up 279 and 3 TDs to Bo Nix. They allowed CRUCIAL conversions that were equally as inexcusable.

 

They didn’t lose because of one OR the other. They lost because both things happened. One gets more grace than the other because over time Josh has performed better in those moments than Sean’s defense. Both were bad vs. Denver.

 

[Green Lightning]

9 hours ago, jahbonas said:

You win by dominating in a phase of the game. The Rams won with the Greatest show on turf while Denver won with the pass rush of Miller n Duberville

The star on this team is the QB Josh Allen -  not an OLB like Lawrence Taylor - so you can dominate on offense not defense

We have dominated on offense.  No SBs to show for it.

[Success]

Give me aggressiveness!

 

I loved coach McD, and I'm grateful for everything he did here.  But really - wouldn't you have wanted us to always face the kinds of soft defenses he ran?  They were fine against middlin' competition, but once we got the playoffs, better teams could really pick them apart.

 

[Maine-iac]

Not a McDermott apologist but I do wonder how Beane hung on and he got canned. Most years we got bounced it really comes down to a play or two and this year we're looking at Dane getting beat one of the two plays he was in the game.  Cooks not hanging on to a game winning pass.  People complain about soft defense but every year we're playing back ups in the secondary or at LB and Denver was an example of not playing soft.  I'm fine throwing blame on McDermott but I'm still surprised Beane is still here.  I'm still holding out hope he learned something but here we are again drafting nothing but undersized DT's, pocket collapsing bull rush DE's, and a CB probably not on most peoples radar to go where he did.  I'm hoping Leonard has a plan for all of them and they are great but I don't see a double digit sack guy currently on the roster and the turnover in the secondary means a new system and new players will have something to prove.  I hope I'm as convinced it was all McDermott and nothing else as others are.  For now I still feel like Beane has something to prove.

[Kirby Jackson]

32 minutes ago, Maine-iac said:

Not a McDermott apologist but I do wonder how Beane hung on and he got canned. Most years we got bounced it really comes down to a play or two and this year we're looking at Dane getting beat one of the two plays he was in the game.  Cooks not hanging on to a game winning pass.  People complain about soft defense but every year we're playing back ups in the secondary or at LB and Denver was an example of not playing soft.  I'm fine throwing blame on McDermott but I'm still surprised Beane is still here.  I'm still holding out hope he learned something but here we are again drafting nothing but undersized DT's, pocket collapsing bull rush DE's, and a CB probably not on most peoples radar to go where he did.  I'm hoping Leonard has a plan for all of them and they are great but I don't see a double digit sack guy currently on the roster and the turnover in the secondary means a new system and new players will have something to prove.  I hope I'm as convinced it was all McDermott and nothing else as others are.  For now I still feel like Beane has something to prove.

Anyone that thinks it was “all McDermott” is crazy. Anyone that thinks he doesn’t deserve blame is equally as crazy.
 

There are multiple reasons that the Bills haven’t gotten there. McDermott and the talent on the roster are 2 of the major reasons. I agree that they could have, and should have, done more in terms of change. At the same time, it’s tough to convince me that either deserved to stay. 

Edited May 3 by Kirby Jackson