It doesn’t sound as if Rex Ryan’s defense was all that popular with the players that he relied upon to implement it.
Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus criticized Ryan’s defense was too much for some players to handle, and that Ryan spent too much time creating matchups rather than letting his team play to their strengths.
“I feel like we should’ve been just more aggressive on defense … because that’s the kind of players that we have,” Dareus told ESPN’s Josina Anderson. “We want to put our foot on the pedal and keep it down knowing what we’re doing, and being strategic on what we’re doing. Not trying to matchup with this team, or that team. We want to have our identity (knowing) this is who we are, and what we’re going to do.
“It was just too much detail for a lot of guys, and I feel like for a lot of guys it was too much going on for them to check here and check there, if this happens and that happens. Then nine times out of ten, a team will throw something out there that we weren’t prepared for, and then the adjustment to it, we had to get used to and try to make it happen and make plays.”
There were reports that indicated Ryan had lost the ear of his defense. This seems to indicate that there may have been some truth to that.
