National Football League

Rob Ryan Reportedly Interviewing For Washington Redskins Defensive Coordinator Job

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:51 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jacob Camenker/FanSided via Riggo's Rag

The Washington Redskins are going to be interviewing Rob Ryan for their defensive coordinator vacancy. Would he be a good fit?

After a relatively quiet weekend for the Washington Redskins, they appear to be getting back into the coaching search. They are still looking for a defensive coordinator to replace the departed Joe Barry, and according to the MMQB’s Albert Breer, they are going to be interviewing Rob Ryan for a chance to do the job.

While Ryan may be an upgrade over Barry, there are still a lot of questions surrounding the former Bills staffer.

Over the past 12 seasons, Ryan has been the defensive coordinator for five different NFL teams. He started his coordinating career with the Raiders back in 2004, and eventually built them to the third best defense in terms of yardage by 2006. However, in the years after that, Ryan’s units sputtered for the most part. He had one more top five yardage finish in 2013 with the Saints, but for the most parts his units were average.

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Even more concerning for Ryan is the fact that he has had the second worst defense in total yardage in three separate seasons. He also has only had an above average scoring defense twice, meaning that his units have struggled to stop teams when they get into the red zone. Similar to his brother Rex, Rob’s defenses have lacked discipline, which would be a bad mix for the Redskins considering their lack of talented personnel.

Still, Ryan is worthy of an interview. He is an extremely experience coordinator, and he has been able to get his players to play hard on a couple of different occasions. He definitely is not the ideal fit for the Redskins, but they need to do everything they can to find a suitable replacement at the position.

At the end of the day, it seems doubtful that Ryan will be the top candidate for the job. Mike Pettine is likely ahead of him in the pecking order, while another candidate could emerge in the coming days. There is no knowing what the Redskins are currently thinking, but it still seems like Ryan would be a long shot to land the job.