Bills nose tackle Marcell Dareus dared to criticize the recently fired — but apparently popular — Rex Ryan, and former disciple Bart Scott took it upon himself to hurl insults right back.
Scott, an 11-year pro who retired in 2012, during Ryan’s Jets tenure, sounded aghast on CBS Sports Radio Thursday that Dareus found his old coach’s game plan to have “too much detail for a lot of guys.” The one-time defensive Pro-Bowler suggested Dareus’ comment signaled a larger problem within a team fighting to end the season at .500 when it visits — who else — the Jets on Sunday.
“That might sum the whole thing up — because that’s the guy that you gave $100 million,” Scott, an NFL analyst these days, said on “The DA Show,” referring to a six-year extension worth $108 million Dareus signed in 2015. “Instead of reading his play book, he was too busy lighting up. Are you serous?”
Dareus was suspended four games this season for testing positive for marijuana and one game in 2014 following an arrest for criminal possession of a controlled substance. Scott was not done.
“First of all, I’ve been in this system my entire career. Eleven years, I’ve been in this system,” said Scott, who played with Ryan in Baltimore, too. “As a defensive lineman, you only have like four (or five) fronts. Man, if you can’t remember five fronts, I don’t know what to tell you, bro. We can’t put the play book in crayon.”
Scott, though four years removed from the NFL, then attempted to break it down for Dareus on the show, reminding him that Ryan’s defensive schemes use code words to make the learning curve easier for his players.
“I can explain to you the entire defense,” Scott said. “(One) call might be ‘Bull Fire Zone.’ What’s the first letter of bull? … Boundary. (The pressure is) coming from the boundary. That’s all Dareus has to know.
“I’ve had teammates that were special needs in high school and college. I played with at least four teammates that were dyslexic and they picked it up. So Marcell Dareus needs to be re-evaluated. I don’t know what his Wonderlic was, but for him to say that defense was complicated, I don’t know.”
Dareus’ teammate, star wide receiver Sammy Watkins, had a different take on what needs to be re-evaluated for the Bills to rebuild successfully.
In a potential jab at Ryan, Watkins expressed hope that the team’s next coach would have the strength to cut the dead weight and turn the struggling organization into a contender.
“I think they just have to come in and whatever coach that we have, and I think (Anthony) Lynn [Bills interim coach] is a great coach,” Watkins said, according to the Bills website. “He has that demeanor, that leadership. But the new coach has to change what needs to be changed. Change the culture, change the mindset and get players on board. If they’re not listening, cut them, kick them out, whatever. Sit them on the bench. I think that will help us move forward.
“Whatever around the locker room that needs to be addressed, on the field, off the field, (penalty) flags. Whether it’s working on things in the summer that we’re not good at and being a professional. As players that’s got to get fixed first. Then the coaches have got to be hard on us, not scared of us. Get at us, yell at us, curse at us, whatever to get the player to do that job the best he can that’s what they need to do.”