Rex Ryan doesn't care who's playing quarterback for the Patriots. He just wants to beat them.
That's what the Bills coach told reporters on Wednesday when he was asked about the findings in the Wells Report and the punishment handed to quarterback Tom Brady and his team as a result.
"Was there news on that?" Ryan asked, per Matt Fairburn of Syracuse.com. "You know what? I think the big deal is for us, we know we're playing the Patriots Week 2. No matter who's there, we're playing the Patriots Week 2, they're playing us.
"[Bill] Belichick is going to bring his team in and he's going to have his team prepared. And I'll promise you I'm going to have our team prepared as well. So that's really all I think about it. All the particulars and all that stuff, I really haven't given any thought to."
Brady will appeal his suspension, according to his agent Don Yee. It's unclear just how scaled back the suspension will end up, if it's scaled back at all, but there is a chance that the Patriots will have backup Jimmy Garoppolo under center when the team heads to Buffalo for its second regular season game in 2015.
Ryan was asked if he would rather square off against Brady, giving him the opportunity to defeat the defending champs at their best.
"No I don’t," Ryan said. Beating the Patriots minus their Super Bowl MVP would be just fine with him.
New England Patriots
"That's what it says on the scoreboard," he said. "You just want to beat them. I don't care who's back there. You're playing the Patriots, whoever they have that's the way you look at it. That's the way we're going to approach it."
As far as how Brady's suspension may affect the rest of the AFC East, Ryan had his doubts. He explained that the Patriots will still be the team to beat.
"Last I looked, it's still the New England Patriots," Ryan said. "They did win a Super Bowl, right? That's the last I looked. To me, we're focusing on getting our team better, and I don't care who's in our division or anything else. This is about us. We don't go in thinking, 'This guy's playing, this guy's not playing or whatever.' That's not how we're going to look at it. We'll look at it as whoever's up next, they're going to get our best shot, and that's how we're going to approach it. Looking at it as, 'Hey, this guy's not in here,' I mean things happen in this league. We're not assured that we're going to have this player or that player the whole time also, through injury or whatever. Things happen.
"One thing I can tell you is we will be prepared to play against whoever we play. I'm not feeling sorry for anybody. We're going to play. Whoever shows up, we're going to play against them and we're going to be prepared."