ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- It was a blink-and-you-missed-it moment, but when Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan was speaking Tuesday about his brother, Rob Ryan, being fired by the New Orleans Saints, he snuck in an unexpected compliment about New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
"He'll be fine," Rex Ryan said of his brother. "But it's the business. It's the business that we chose, and all that. It's gonna happen. It happens to every coach. It happened to [Bill] Belichick, the greatest coach of all time. It happened to him. It happens to everybody."
Ryan said upon taking the New York Jets' head-coaching job he wouldn't kiss Belichick's Super Bowl rings, so his praise of Belichick as the two teams are set to meet next Monday night was a change of pace.
The Bills' coach also had plenty to say about Tom Brady, whose 466 passing yards in the Patriots' Week 2 win in Buffalo were the second most of his career and the most against the Bills in their franchise's history.
"That one was hard to fathom. That has never happened to me before," Ryan said Tuesday, adding that the Patriots are "arguably the best team in football right now" and have "the best offense in the league, with the best quarterback."
As Ryan was preparing to face his former team, the Jets, last week, he told reporters that it was next Monday's game against the Patriots that was circled on his calendar. He also wondered why Brady hasn't gotten worse with age, saying, "I'm waiting for the wheels to come off."
Asked Tuesday if he's seeing any decline from Brady, Ryan responded, "I’ll say this: I haven’t seen that. I’ve seen a gray hair in his head, so that’s it. You’re gonna go gray, pal. One of these days. But the thing about him is, where I don’t know what’s driving him -- he’s got all the rings, he’s got all this stuff -- but there’s something internal that drives that guy and he’s in phenomenal shape.
"This might be as good as shape as he’s been. And maybe knowing that when you’re getting up there in age, you’ve got to be in great shape. But he’s that way. He’s moving well. And his accuracy is like crazy."
Brady threw for 193 yards in the fourth quarter of the Patriots' win Sunday over the New York Giants.
"Well, [the Giants] rattled them for over 200 passing yards in a quarter," Ryan said when asked about the apparent success of the Giants' game plan. "So what’s that, 800 [yards for a game]? [If he] threw for 800 yards against us -- if that happens, I’ll join my brother in the unemployment line.
"And Brady will try to do that, you watch."