This was the Rex Ryan we remember.
Ryan stepped up to a new podium on Wednesday and went into his old bag of tricks. Gone was the coach who had the bluster slowly drained out of him by the end of his six-year tenure with the Jets. This was early-period Rex, now representing the Buffalo Bills.
"Is this thing on?" Ryan asked, tapping the microphone at the start of his introductory news conference. "Because it's getting ready to be on."
And so it began. What followed were a flurry of one-liners that offered local reporters more to work with than Doug Marrone gave them in two years.
"I'm not going to let our fans down. I'm not going to do that," Ryan said. "I know it's been 15 years since the Bills made the playoffs. Well, get ready man. We're going. We are going. The guarantee? Hey, am I going to guarantee a Super Bowl? I tell you what I will do, I will guarantee the pursuit of it."
Ryan also spoke of the urgency of this job from a personal standpoint.
"I have one more shot to be head coach and I have to get it done," he said. "I understand I won't have another opportunity and don't want another opportunity. This is the shot that I want."
Ryan added what appeared to be a not-so-subtle dig at Marrone, who resigned abruptly as Bills coach on New Year's Eve.
"This football team deserves a loyal coach and deserves loyal players," he said. "That's what we're bringing. Nobody's more loyal than me as a football coach."
After his opening remarks, Ryan was asked repeatedly about the quarterback position and his plans for former first-round pick EJ Manuel. Ryan said the team was in the evaluation process and added that Manuel has the tools to be a quality quarterback. (This sounded remarkably familiar to comments made when Geno Smith was his QB.)
Ryan gave an honest answer when asked about the possibility of a reunion with Mark Sanchez, the quarterback who helped take the coach to back-to-back AFC title games in 2009 and 2010.
"Certainly he'll be a guy under consideration," Ryan said. "We'll explore every avenue."
Some more choice cuts from Ryan's first impression on Buffalo:
» "We are going to build a bully and we're going to see if you want to play us for 60 minutes."
» "Are we going to do 'ground and pound'? Yeah. You're darn right we are. Are we going to throw it? Yeah, we got Sammy Watkins outside, why wouldn't we throw it?"
» "As (owner) Terry (Pegula) likes to say, we have one ego. I go, 'Yes sir, that's exactly right. When he hired me that ego got a little bigger."
» On the perception he lost his swagger by the end of his Jets tenure: "I lost some victories along the way. I haven't lost my swagger."
» Some sneaky Jim Schwartz shade: "You mentioned how well we played on defense last year. You know, fourth in the league is probably a little disappointing, to be honest with you. Because that's not where my expectations are. I know we'll lead the league in defense."
"Because I think they realize that that I'm not a mediocre coach," he replied. "The record may say that, especially this year ... they understand the game a lot better than you give them credit for." (Something tells us Rex won't miss these guys.)
» If one of Ryan's goals was to send a message to his team, it appears he succeeded:
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