The Buffalo Bills arguably made one of the best hires in the current cycle by pouncing on former Jets coach Rex Ryan. But Ryan didn’t start as one of the top candidates for the job.
Co-owner Kim Pegula recently explained in an appearance on The John Murphy Show, a production of the website owned by the team, that Ryan wasn’t a top candidate until he interviewed for the job the first time.
Kim Pegula explained that the Bills entered the process with an open mind, that Ryan wasn’t on the short list, and that he quickly landed there after his first interview.
“Rex almost was a candidate we put in there because obviously his name was all around as a candidate that was open and we really didn’t give much thought to him,” Kim Pegula said. “We had obviously interviewed a lot of people before him. And he came in and I think we were just very pleasantly surprised at how very down to earth he really was in person and his love of the game and some of the things that he said on what he really wanted to do with his life and where he wanted to help us as being part of the team. And I think that really resounded really well with [co-owner] Terry [Pegula] and I. And it was a little bit of a surprise, I’m gonna admit, because he was not a candidate that we had really on the top of our list as, ‘Wow, this is the guy we want, let’s go get him.’”
Rex’s emergence as the top candidate despite not being one of the top candidates underscores the importance of keeping an open mind and resisting the temptation to decide on the next coach before the current coach is fired.
