Updated Tuesday, Dec. 27

The Bills fired Rex Ryan and his brother Rob prior to the Bills' season finale against the Jets.

On the face of it, this seems strange when you consider Ryan reportedly has three years remaining on his contract at $5.5 million a year and through one season and 15 games he was 15-16 — 8-8 last season and 7-8 today.

Why is that awful enough to get fired?

Normally it wouldn’t be, but Ryan is often his own worst enemy.

This season will mark the Bills 17th straight without a trip to the playoffs, the longest drought in the NFL today.

Only the Browns with 14 consecutive missed playoffs and the Rams with an even dozen have gone more than a decade without a visit to the postseason.

This past summer, Ryan proclaimed his Bills playoff ready and announced anything less that the playoffs this year would be a failure.

But that still isn’t enough on its own to get him canned.

The Way We Hear It, Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula – who just bought the team early in the 2014 season and then saw their head coach, Doug Marrone, exercise an out in his contract following the season, forcing them to hire a new coach (Ryan) just a few months after taking over the club – have simply had enough of Ryan’s act.

Ryan is exceedingly brash, arrogant and has never met a microphone or television camera he doesn’t like.

Ironically, that is his coaching style.

Off the record, he can be calm, polite, humble and quite pleasant, but it is reportedly his coaching style that has worn thin quickly with the Pegulas as they’ve assimilated to NFL ownership.

It also has been reported in multiple outlets that Bills general manager Doug Whaley, who oversaw the hiring of Marrone and Ryan, is likely to stay and have a hand in hiring a third head coach, a rare opportunity for an NFL GM.

Some have wondered why, since Whaley hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with the Bills' personnel decisions.

We hear the answer may be because the Pegulas already know who their next head coach is going to be, and that is what is giving them some comfort in making the move on Ryan so quickly. Their guy may be more than capable of upgrading Whaley’s end of the operation as well or, if necessary, helping in the process of replacing him down the road.

The Way We Hear It, the Pegulas have been in conversations for some time now with Tom Coughlin, and Coughlin is the front-runner to be the next head coach of the Bills following this season.

Reports of the Bills owners’ interest in Coughlin date back to last summer, and our sources are telling us that conversations began again a few weeks ago and that the interest is mutual.

Unlike some former head coaches of Coughlin’s stature who need to be persuaded, coerced and wined and dined to return to the sidelines, Coughlin can’t wait. We are told he will jump at the first top job that is offered, which may be why the Bills appear ready to move on from Ryan so quickly.

While reports have surfaced of the Jacksonville Jaguars' interest in Coughlin, they are really as simple as general manager David Caldwell saying “the right thing” at a press conference discussing their head-coaching search.

Coughlin was good but not great – 68-60, four playoffs in eight seasons – as the first-ever coach of the 1995 expansion team. He was fired after consecutive 6-10 seasons.

Relatively new owner Shad Khan – he bought the Jaguars five years ago – will be hiring his third coach in five seasons. After missing on veteran Mike Mularkey and Gus Bradley, we hear he is unlikely to want to take the franchise back 15 seasons for a do-over with Coughlin considering his fairly young roster and Coughlin’s age (71 in August 2017).

As we reported here last week, we continue to hear that Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith is the most likely fit in Jacksonville.

Nonetheless, according to our sources, the Pegulas are sold on Coughlin. We hear they could move quickly the week after New Year's Day to put him in charge of their team.