News out of Buffalo is that Bills owners Kim and Terry Pegula had a bout of buyer’s remorse as the Bills limped to an 8-8 finish and missed a playoff berth. Head coach Rex Ryan and GM Doug Whaley both got an ultimatum with a week to go in the season, according to The Buffalo News. The report says the Pegulas essentially said: win next year or find someplace else to work. (Another report from the same source contradicts the ultimatum scenario, saying Whaley’s deal is getting extended.)
With one year left on his current deal, Whaley might not find it shocking that 2016 is a do-or-die situation for him in Buffalo — as the ultimatum story has it. (Whaley might even be relieved to be given another year to muster a turnaround — though he’s said he’s felt nothing but support from the Bills owners.) But Ryan, who like the owners is in his first year with the Bills, has four years left on a contract that guarantees him $27.5 million even if he’s coaching elsewhere. An ultimatum there doesn’t seem to be the Pegula’s style, either financially or from a leadership perspective. Ryan spent the previous six years with the New York Jets, missing the playoffs in the last four of them.
