Long before fans see him, New York will hear him coming.
He is Rex Ryan, blusterous and boisterous, and he leads NFL coaches in volume. No one does swagger quite the way that Ryan does. For years, that was perfect fit in New York when he coached the Jets.
Tonight, he returns to New York. And for the first time in a long time, New Yorkers would love to muzzle him.
Ryan, now the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, leads his new team to New York. The Bills are 4-4 and the Jets 5-3.
“I think he’ll get cheered — he didn’t quit on us, they fired him,” Jets linebacker Trevor Reilly told the New York Post. “He brought a lot of joy to the city, and they went to two back-to-back conference championship games, and he was always good with the media and good with the fans, so I think they’ll cheer him.”
Ryan specialized on defense while with the Jets, but his Bills are only 16th in the NFL. The Jets are fourth, but they’ve given up an average of 29 points over the last three games. They’ve also surrendered more than 1,000 yards through the air.
In six years, Ryan was 46-50 as coach of the Jets.
One of the key matchups in the game will be Buffalo wide receiver Sammy Watkins against the Jets’ all-pro cornerback Darrelle Revis. Jets’ running back Chris Ivory has struggled for three straight games, including gaining only 26 yards on 23 carries in his last one.
Game time is listed as 8:25 p.m.
