Rex Ryan spent eight seasons competing against Tom Brady as a head coach — six with the New York Jets (2009-14) and two with the Buffalo Bills (2015-16) — but he’s still in no rush to see the six-time Super Bowl champion leave the AFC East.
Ryan explained Monday on ESPN’s “Get Up” that he believes Brady will return to the New England Patriots this offseason despite widespread speculation the quarterback could take his talents elsewhere upon hitting free agency for the first time in his illustrious NFL career.
Ryan also thinks this would be the best-case scenario for the Patriots, who suffered a 20-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans in the wild-card round Saturday, as Brady brings stability to a team with a flawed roster as constituted.
“For the people that think that, ‘Oh, it’d be good to get Brady out of there and we’ll bring in another quarterback,’ let me remind you something: I go, ‘No. 1, you wouldn’t win half your games if you had somebody else at quarterback,’ ” Ryan said. “I know they’ll point to Matt Cassel (in 2008), but that was when the Patriots were really the Patriots. They’re not (anymore). Not with this team, this garbage team? No chance of it. They win three or four games without him.
“Look, I know, I went against Brady all those years. I got whipped by him several times, OK? The one time that I had a chance to coach against the Patriots without Tom Brady, we shut ’em out in Foxboro (16-0). So forget about it. That guy needs to go nowhere.”
The Patriots went 12-4 during the regular season en route to their 11th consecutive division title, so it’s not unrealistic to think they could retool this offseason and again make noise in the AFC in 2020. Overall, their ceiling might be tied to Brady’s decision, though, especially if New England doesn’t address the other personnel issues that ultimately doomed its 2019 campaign.
