NFL: Is Rex Ryan to Blame for Buffalo Bills Disappointing 2015 Season?
There's still another week of regular season football to be played this NFL season, but it won't matter for the Buffalo Bills. The Bills have missed the playoffs for the 16th consecutive year, the longest active drought in the NFL.
What went wrong? Who's to blame? As much hype as there was surrounding Rex Ryan's arrival, many feel as if he deserves a lot of the blame. It's hard to paint a pretty picture for Ryan considering the Bills were an improving team with nine wins last year and sit at just seven this year.
The biggest surprise comes on defense. The Bills were an elite defensive squad last season ranking fourth overall in yards against and fourth overall in points allowed. Last season the Bills had the No. 1 pass defense in the entire league. This year has been a lot different. This Bills squad ranks 20th overall in yards against and 23rd in passing yards allowed. That is absolutely stunning considering Ryan is a defensive mastermind who has made a career out of winning games on that side of the football.
Perhaps the all-telling stat that shows the vivid different from last year to this year is sacks. Last season the Bills were the single best team in the NFL at getting to the quarterback with 54 sacks. So how about this season? This year the Bills have accumulated just 20 total sacks through 15 games, that's the second fewest in the league and the least of any AFC team. Last year Marcell Dareus, Jerry Hughes and Mario Williams all had double digit sack numbers, but this year not a single Bills player even has six.
The bottom line is the Bills have 34 less quarterback sacks than last year.
Surprisingly, the Bills actually had a better offense than defense this year unlike a Ryan-led team. Tyrod Taylor really showed fans a lot this year with his deep ball throwing and elusive running. The odds of E.J. Manuel ever retaining the full time starting quarterback role are very slim. Who would have thought a Bills quarterback would be so good all year and the Bills would rank first in rushing yards, yet they still wouldn't even have a winning record?
On top of Ryan's Bills missing the playoffs, his former team, the New York Jets, made the postseason as did the New England Patriots, the team Ryan has hated for years. It won't be a quiet offseason for the Ryan family.
Ryan has never been an offensive mastermind, so with the defense struggling, you can bet a lot of big changes will be coming this offseason.
Follow Damon Salvadore on Twitter @DamonSalvadore1