Rex Ryan says Jets are 'just another opponent' ahead of TNF showdown
Rex declined the opportunity to engage in some pregame trash talk against his former team.
By
Jared Dubin
•
1 min read
On this week's edition of Thursday Night Football, the Buffalo Bills will travel to East Rutherford, NJ, to take on the New York Jets. Of course, that trip is about more than just a longstanding AFC East rivalry, because Bills coach Rex Ryan will be coaching against his former team. Ryan was the head coach of the Jets from 2009 until he was fired at the end of last season.
Given that we know Rex loves himself some pregame trash talk and that he's about to coach against his former team, you'd think he might have taken the opportunity after his current team's big win over the Dolphins to stoke the flames of the rivalry, but instead, he downplayed the situation.
Eschewing his typical pregame bluster, Ryan said of the Jets, "I promise you, it's just another opponent right now," per ESPN. "Now will that change when I'm in there? That's a possibility. But I can tell you this -- it's all about, you're playing another team. And I know that team really well.
"But that's really what it is. And it's no more than that -- I can promise you. It'll be the same way I'm answering it right now until at the end. Now after the game, that might change."
Ryan's Bills enter the contest with a 4-4 record, sitting one game behind the Jets at 5-3. Both teams are in the race for one of the two AFC wild card spots, given that they don't stand much of a chance of catching the division-leading 8-0 Patriots, barring some sort of collapse. Thursday's game could go a long way toward giving one of the two squads a leg up, especially if it's the Jets that come away with a win to go two games up and control the tiebreaker.
