Bills owner explains why Rex Ryan was fired and why GM had clue
Terry Pegula says there's no dysfunction in Buffalo
When Bills general manager Doug Whaley held his season-ending press conference on Monday, one of the oddest statements that came out of the interview was Whaley insisting that he had no idea why Rex Ryan was fired.
As soon as the words came out of Whaley's mouth, it sounded almost unbelievable: How could the general manager of a team not know why the head coach was being fired?
"I look at it this way: I'm the GM of the football operation," Whaley said. "I was told by my boss that I would no longer be working with a certain person. My role is not to figure out why."
After Whaley made that statement, the general consensus on Twitter became clear: The Bills are a dysfunctional team with no hope for the future.
With that press conference, and confirmation of total dysfunction, I don't know why any coach would want to coach the #Bills.
— John Mack (@jmack6999) January 2, 2017
Lol Bills GM says he "doesn't know why Rex Ryan was fired, and wasn't informed about the decision"...😂😂 Definition of dysfunction #NFL
— A_Izen (@IzenEars) January 2, 2017
Pegulas fire Rex without input from their GM. Now the GM will lead the search for the new HC. This is dysfunction beyond measure. #Bills
— AJ Berke (@TheBerker) January 2, 2017
Apparently, Bills owner Terry Pegula wasn't thrilled about his team being called dysfunctional, so he decided to to do a phone interview with the Associated Press on Monday to explain why Ryan was fired and why the general manager didn't have any details on the firing.
According to Pegula, he was on a three-way call with Whaley and Ryan when Ryan asked to speak to him privately. At that point, Ryan asked about his future in Buffalo, and that's when Pegula made the "executive decision" to dump Ryan.
"I was asked a point-blank question and based on the discussions we've been having all year, I felt it was better to tell Rex that we were going in a different direction," Pegula said.
Pegula also added that, despite what you might think, the Bills are not a dysfunctional team.
"There's no dysfunction. Everybody is on the same page," Pegula said. "We're busy busting our asses."
The Bills owner also backed up Whaley's statement about Ryan being on the hot seat. During his press conference, Whaley insisted he didn't know Ryan was on the hot seat.
"(Whaley) had input on the basis of conversations throughout the year, what the problems were," Pegula said. "But did Doug ever say, 'Are we firing our coach, are we keeping our coach?' We never had that conversation. I took it upon myself to tell Rex on the basis of conversations about the games and the aftermath of certain games that, hey, things aren't going well."
Pegula also touched on one other topic: The future of Tyrod Taylor. The Bills benched Taylor for the team's season finale on Sunday so he wouldn't get injured, which would've put them on the hook for the $30.75 million left on his contract.
Although Pegula didn't say the Bills were going to get rid of Taylor, he definitely sounded non-committal about the quarterback's future in Buffalo.
"Maybe he can win more games than that, I don't know," Pegula said. "But when the other side of the ball's not performing, it's hard to outscore people."
The Bills are going to have a busy offseason. Not only do they have to hire a new coach, but they're also going to have to figure out who their quarterback of the future is.
















