He has been pretty straightforward in extolling the vast experience held by the coaching staff he was able to assemble since he was hired as head coach of the Bills last month. Now Rex Ryan is using his top flight staff as a means to recruit free agents.
Buffalo's coaching staff boasts six assistants who have served as coordinators in the NFL in addition to Ryan, a former defensive coordinator himself. There are four assistants on the offensive side of the ball who hold 15 or more years of coaching experience at the NFL level. On defense there are three assistants with 11 years or more of NFL coaching acumen.
Ryan is taking all that expertise and selling it to free agents as he did with QB Josh McCown, who paid the Bills a visit Monday.
"I'm excited about our coaching staff," said Ryan flatly. "I think that's the probably the best selling point that I have right now along with the players that we have. Obviously we have an outstanding group of players too that I like to show off to a lot of guys."
Buffalo's head coach is quick to trumpet the recent success of offensive coordinator Greg Roman at his last stop in San Francisco where he went to three straight NFC title games and successfully maximized the talents of quarterbacks Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick.
That was no doubt coupled with the fact that McCown had his most successful NFL season under Buffalo's current offensive line coach, Aaron Kromer, who served as offensive coordinator in Chicago when McCown appeared in eight games in 2013.
Having senior offensive assistant Chris Palmer, a former coordinator and head coach, also a part of the equation and there's an awful lot of football knowledge to offer any player set to sign on the dotted line this offseason.
"It shows the dedication and the commitment that the Pegulas and ownership has, the fact that we wanted to build the best coaching staff we could get and have an all-star staff if you will," Ryan told buffalobills.com. "It's also a bunch of guys that will work well together. It's obviously a group of outstanding individuals, but it's what we do collectively in the team concept and all the guys grasp that. It is an impressive group."
Players want to feel their game will improve when they go to a new situation as a free agent. They have to believe they have coaches who can help raise the level of their play.
By the same token players already on the roster want to have the peace of mind that the new staff will maximize their abilities. That's what has Ryan so excited about EJ Manuel. He's convinced that the third-year quarterback can also push his game forward with all the expertise he'll have at his disposal.
"I'm excited to see how he is around Greg Roman and David Lee and Chris Palmer," said Ryan. "All three of those guys have a track record of developing quarterbacks and I'll be excited to watch EJ develop in those circumstances."
