Nearly eight months since his firing, former head coach Rex Ryan still believes the Bills can be a playoff team -- even this year.
In an interview with Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News, Ryan discussed a range of topics including his firing and the outlook for the upcoming season.
Buffalo was pegged by USA Today to finish 4-12 in 2017. Ryan, whose Bills were 7-8 before he was fired the final week of the regular season, disagreed with that assessment.
"There's no way in hell," said Ryan. "That's a coach's dream, to have that kind of prediction because there is no pressure on you but I think that is total bull. If that is the case, why was I fired when I was fired if that's how bad this team was? So I don't get that. To saddle them with four wins, I totally disagree with that."
"I feel the Bills will surprise a ton of people," said Ryan. "They are kind of trying to float this under the radar stuff, which I get. That's probably the way to go, that's the way everybody goes. Undersell and overproduce. I get it. I believe they will have a lot better year than the experts. Could they be a playoff team? They might very well be."
Ryan's belief shouldn't come as a surprise. He famously said the Bills were going to the playoffs in his introductory press conference in January of 2015.
The playoff drought, which is the longest in the National Football League, extended to 17 years under his watch.
The Bills also lost six games by six or fewer points. Ryan told Pergament, "We just didn't finish."
In a recent Twitter poll, Bills fans didn't express much optimism, expecting the club to win six or fewer games.
A way too early fan poll before training camp:
How many wins do the #Bills get this year? @WKBW
— Nick Filipowski (@NICK_WKBW) July 24, 2017
You can read Pergament's full article here: Rex Ryan thinks the Bills could make playoffs, despite what experts say
