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Training Camp

Rex Ryan's swagger returns with Buffalo Bills, his 'last stop in coaching'

Lorenzo Reyes
USA TODAY
Rex Ryan went 4-2 in two playoff trips with the Jets.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Rex Ryan looked lost.

Though his new team, the Buffalo Bills, was kicking off its final night practice of training camp last week at St. John Fisher College, Ryan ambled around almost aimlessly. The coach and football junkie wanted to talk shop but couldn't find anyone.

Finally, senior offensive assistant Chris Palmer, perched on a brick ledge by, caught Ryan's eye — and the war stories and debates about their favorite players immediately ensued.

Ryan was clearly at ease, even if he knows this will be his last shot to lead an NFL team.

“This is definitely going to be it,” Ryan told USA TODAY Sports. “This is my last stop in coaching, and then when my days are up, I’ll turn it over to the younger generation. I’m not going anywhere else.”

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What Ryan isn’t telling you is that he’s betting on himself.

Buffalo may be his last stop, but he’s not counting on another failure like he experienced at the end of his six-year tenure with the New York Jets. Eight months after getting fired by the Jets, the first team to hire him as a head coach, Ryan's swagger is back in full force.

“There are always going to be people that judge you, but that’s OK,” Ryan said. “People should worry about themselves more than they should worry about me. They don’t have to agree with me, or whatever, but I got news for you: I’m not changing. I’m going to be myself. I don’t care if you like it, or you dislike it. This is who I am.”

Ryan took the Jets to the AFC Championship Game each of his first two seasons. But the club went 26-38 in his final four seasons and never again came close to ending a Super Bowl drought now approaching a half century.

But now he's embracing his second chance with the Bills, who haven't been to the playoffs since 1999. Ryan plans on taking them back — on his terms.

“He wasn’t the guy that I knew,” CBS analyst and former linebacker Bart Scott, who played for Ryan with the Jets, told USA TODAY Sports. “He was a guy, that I felt, had been neutered, had been censored. He can only be one way. To get the best out of him, you have to allow him to be who he is.

"I know he knew toward the end that he was gone, and it affected him.”

Matt Simms saw it, too.

A reserve quarterback in Ryan’s final two seasons with the Jets, Simms asked for his release from New York in May. The first person to call was Ryan. The Bills claimed Simms off waivers shortly after.

“You can tell he’s at home here,” Simms told USA TODAY Sports. “No question. This Bills organization welcomed Rex for who he is and you can tell that he feels he has a front office that has his back.”

That's evident given the chance the Bills have taken at Ryan's behest.

The Bills have welcomed players with red flags. In each case, Ryan had to assure Buffalo’s new owners, Terry and Kim Pegula, that the talent would be worth the trouble. Ryan had to stand on a table for Richie Incognito (Miami Dolphins harassment scandal), IK Enemkpali (broke former Jets teammate Geno Smith’s jaw in locker room fight in August) and Percy Harvin (traded from the Seattle Seahawks to Ryan's Jets last season after Harvin's involvement in locker room fight).

Some might say Ryan is selling his soul to build a winner. He doesn’t see it that way.

“The people that are critical of those things, I would challenge them to look at their own self, and see if they weren’t given a second opportunity or second chances,” Ryan said. “It’s hard to make it in this world in one shot. I believe in every one of those guys. To me it’s not a risk, on any of them. These guys aren’t risks. These guys are — I believe — going to be successful here.”

And Ryan may be right. He inherited a strong roster that boasts a stout defense and offensive playmakers. But Buffalo will have to overcome its recent history — the Bills have finished above .500 just twice (9-7 both times) in the past 15 seasons — and hope that unproven starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor is up to the task.

But the veterans seem be buying in even though Ryan's arrival represented more turbulence.

Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kyle Williams wondered in January whether he wanted to go through it again after the team had just missed the playoffs before former coach Doug Marrone opted out of his contract.

“I would say, if not for who we hired, then, yeah, this whole thing would have been frustrating,” Williams told USA TODAY Sports. “But we hired him, and it was a home run in my book. This makes all that worry or doubt go out the window because of his reputation with his players and the guys that have coached with him around the league.”

To some on the outside, Ryan's reputation is one of attention-grabbing. But those around his teams stress that there’s a reason behind the bravado.

“There was always a method to the madness," said Scott, who was still playing for Ryan when he guaranteed the Jets would win the Super Bowl prior to the 2011 season.

"But you have to know Rex to understand what he’s doing. He’s transparent to his team. We always knew what was going on. We weren’t shocked by anything that was said because a lot of that stuff was premeditated. It was strategic. So when it happened, we knew why it was happening.

“That’s why I’ll do anything for Rex, because of who he is and what he stands for.”

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Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes

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