In 2015, Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan guaranteed his new team would break out of a 15-year-old playoff slump.
That didn’t happen.
In 2016, Bills legend Jim Kelly suggested that Ryan would be fired if the Bills missed the playoffs for a 17th consecutive year.
It’s beginning to look as though they’ll miss the playoffs for a 17th consecutive year.
On top of all that, the team gave a six-year, $92 million extension to quarterback Tyrod Taylor in the 2016 offseason, after Taylor made the Pro Bowl while posting the NFL’s eighth-best passer rating and rushing for more yards (568) than every quarterback except league MVP Cam Newton.
But the 6-6 Bills (now 14-14 in the Ryan era) have won just two games since mid-October, thanks in part to Taylor’s poor play. The 27-year-old has seen his numbers fall off a cliff during his second season as a starter, especially of late. Among 25 quarterbacks with at least six starts since Week 7, he ranks 22nd with a passer rating of 77.6. He has just three touchdown passes in that six-game span.
Despite having the league’s best running game, a decent group of receivers led by Sammy Watskins and a decent offensive line, Taylor has regressed. And despite having Ryan and his brother Rob running things on D, that defensive unit has been average at best. They’re not consistent (they’ve surrendered 28 or more points in four of their last six games), they struggle against the run and they don’t make a lot of big plays (just 14 takeaways in 12 games, and only two in the last six weeks).
Aside from Taylor and Watkins, the Bills are relatively old. Arguably their top two defensive players this season — Kyle Williams and Lorenzo Alexander — are both 33, as is top offensive lineman Richie Incognito. Running back LeSean McCoy is 28 and lacks tire tread. They’ll have to replace all of those guys soon, and they can’t feel great about the unreliable Marcell Dareus, who has played only 192 snaps this season while collecting a $12.7 million paycheck.
Pressure is mounting, and now Taylor has come under fire.
As painful as it sounds, it might be time for the Bills to again consider tearing things down and rebuilding. The Ryans have failed miserably with a talented team that didn’t have a wide-open window. Now, that window appears as though it’s about to shut.
Right now, the Bills would be smart to fire the Ryans, refuse to pick up Taylor’s $15.5 million option for 2017 and focus again on building through the draft.
That might be tough for Bills fans to swallow, but it sure doesn’t look as though the current incarnation of this team has a chance of competing anytime soon.
