Week 17

[mooby]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

I was not suggesting both would go to the same place but, rather, that neither of them, individually, would be headed here.

Again, putting aside my personal dislike for his "style," I am not a fan of the Ryan defense - not unless he significantly stripped it down. At this point, his is not a scheme that is easily implemented. Even if he could achieve the level of success he did with Baltimore or the Jets, it would be a couple years down the road.

While I know we aren't "a player or two away," I also don't think the D needs a total overhaul which is what hiring Rex would mean. Barry doesn't "coordinate," in that he just doesn't seem to put players in places they will succeed and doesn't play to their strengths. I think Ryan may have done that early in is career but now is devoted to his scheme. Ryan's D at this point needs buy-in from the players, dedication to a scheme, and trust in the coordinator. At this point in his career, Ryan has become a caricature of himself and I just don't see him engendering trust from the players.

Also, I just don't see Rex and Gruden working well together. I may be wrong but I get the feeling they would clash and we would have all sorts of drama over it. Rex is just one of those guys who can't help but bring the drama.

So, even with more talented players (BTW - Buffalo was not without talent), and barring my personal dislike for him as a coach, I just don't see him as a good fit for the Skins.

I think it's fair to give partial blame to Rex for the Bills' failures, seeing as he had total control after all, but to assume he is incapable of running a successful defense because he hasn't in several years is foolhardy imo. Who's to say his ego is too big to realize he could stand to simplify it a bit after the Bills failure? He just got chin-checked before the season is over, I'm pretty sure right now he's taking a hard look at why it went wrong.

And I don't think you are giving him enough credit for his Jets defenses, while they weren't on the Ravens level they were good in their own right. He had that team in two AFCCG not because of how good Mark Sanchez was playing, those defenses were a big reason why. Yes I realize those two years were an eternity ago in NFL years, but a large part of his failures as a head coach were because he never built an offense worthy of recognition.

I think if you gave him some talent he would find a way to make the defense good again, and it probably wouldn't require two years. I don't think it would require a total change of personnel either, he could keep Norman, Breeland, Kerrigan, Smith/Murphy, Cravens, and Baker for starters and then add in a few players through the draft and free agency and go from there. There's no reason we shouldn't see better results next year.

I will finish by saying I agree that this is a moot argument because Gruden probably isn't interested in having him on staff.