INDIANAPOLIS – Bills coach Rex Ryan did his best Mark McGwire imitation on Wednesday, basically saying he was not there to talk about the past.
Ryan ducked questions on Darrelle Revis winning the Super Bowl, a potential reunion with quarterback Mark Sanchez and Chris Johnson saying his playing time with the Jets last season was not controlled by Ryan, then the Jets coach, but by former GM John Idzik.
Ryan even mimicked a baseball stance and said he was going to let those questions pass him by like a bad pitch.
“Quite honestly, I’m the head coach of the Buffalo Bills and you probably have Jets coming up later,” Ryan said about Johnson’s allegation. “You can ask them. I’m moving on. Respectfully, I’m not going to answer that question because it serves no purpose. For me, anyway.”
Ryan was subdued as he spoke at the scouting combine, site of one of his more famous Super Bowl guarantees in 2011. This time, he sounded a lot like the other NFL coaches, though he did throw in a few one-liners.
“It was terrible,” he cracked about the Patriots winning the Super Bowl.
The Patriots remain the thorn in Ryan’s side as he shifts AFC East locales from New Jersey to Western New York. He also has a familiar problem in Buffalo – no quarterback.
“I think this league’s proven when you’ve got a great quarterback … it’s rare that you don’t go to the playoffs with a great quarterback,” he said. “Obviously, that’s a priority, not just for our team but any team in this league, but it’s a lot easier said than done. It would be nice to get somebody like that.”
The Bills have third-year quarterback EJ Manuel on the roster, but he was benched last season in favor of veteran Kyle Orton, who retired after the season. Now Ryan must turn his attention from fixing Geno Smith to fixing Manuel. Or the Bills could sign a free agent. Josh McCown visited the Bills this week and Ryan said there is interest there. Sanchez, who played for the Eagles last season, also is expected to become a free agent March 10.
“I’m excited about EJ Manuel, though,” Ryan said. “I’ll tell you that much. I think he’s a young man with some potential. We’ll see how that pans out.”
The Bills made waves last week by signing guard Richie Incognito, who was out of the NFL in 2014 after the bullying scandal in Miami two years ago.
“I think the first thing is I’ve played against Richie Incognito [as a coach], and he’s an outstanding player,” Ryan said. “If he wasn’t an outstanding player, would I have had the conversation with him? No. The truth of the matter is no. But knowing what kind of player he is, we wanted to find out for ourselves where he’s at and have a conversation with him.
“Obviously we felt good about him moving forward and conducting himself in a way where he’s a good teammate. I expect him to be that. As far as what he brings to the table, he’s an outstanding player. He hasn’t played in a year or so, but one thing I can tell you is he’s been working out and he was in great shape. I’m happy to have him on my team.”
Ryan said Incognito deserves another chance.
“I get all the questions about him,” he said. “I understand where they’re coming from, and I recognize that there’s several people in our population that will not give this guy a second chance, that no matter what he does he’s going to be looked at a certain way. But I think the majority of the people, in our community in particular, are going to take a wait-and-see approach, and I think that’s all Richie wants. In my opinion, that’s what people deserve. We’ll see what he does from there, but I’m confident good things will happen.”