In the eyes of Buffalo Bills’ coach Rex Ryan, his new team has a shot of narrowing the gap in the AFC East with the division-dominant New England Patriots.
During an interview with NFL Media’s Judy Battista, Ryan stated a bold outlook for the 2015 season—an outlook that includes slowing down the juggernaut of the division.
I hope (the Bills have closed the gap on the Patriots). When you’re the world champs, you’re not going to get better. They lost some good players so hopefully we have closed the gap. Guess we have to find out.
Moving from the New York Jets to Buffalo means that Ryan will continue to face a Bill Belichick-led Patriots squad twice. Ryan is correct in stating that the Pats have lost some valuable players in Vince Wilfork, Darrelle Revis, Brandon Browner and Shane Vereen. However, the team retained Devin McCourty and added Jabaal Sheard as well as running back Travaris Cadet.
As for the Bills, the standout additions of LeSean McCoy and Percy Harvin to the offense are big-time boosts to complement an already stellar defense.
However, when it comes to the quarterbacks, Tom Brady sits light years ahead of the Bills sad looking trio of E.J. Manuel, Matt Cassel and Tyrod Taylor, all of whom Brady could outplay even if he was blindfolded with his legs tied together.
While Ryan’s Bills may fare better than his old Jets teams, the chances of edging ahead of the consistently dominant Patriots is probably a pipe dream.
Photo: USA Today