Rex Ryan believes Bills will make the playoffs:

Don’t get too excited. Rex Ryan didn’t go full on guarantee mode as he did so many times while coaching the New York Jets, but the often brash, high-confidence, Buffalo Bills head coach didn’t mix words when asked if he thought his Bills would make the playoffs in his first season with the team.

Ryan was at Yankee Stadium in New York for a charity softball game when he was asked whether or not Buffalo would make the playoffs in 2015.

“I think we’ll be in it this year,” said Ryan. “So we’ll see.”

While confident, this wasn’t the kind of over-the-top guarantee we often saw Ryan make while with the Jets. It’s clear he’s confident in what the Bills have going into his new gig.

“I think we will,” he said. “Yep, I think we will.”

So of course, someone had to ask the question, is that a guarantee?

“Nah, I’m not going to say it’s a guarantee,” Ryan said. “But I guarantee you one thing: Teams aren’t going to want to play us. I can tell you that much.”

It seems Ryan, heading into his second head coaching gig has learned that it’s ridiculous to guarantee anything in the NFL, and guaranteeing a playoff spot in Buffalo, where the Bills haven’t made the playoffs since 2000 when they fell to the Tennessee Titans In the famous (or infamous if you’re in Buffalo), “Music City Miracle” game may not be the best idea.

The Bills have a lot of things going for them heading into 2015, but making the playoffs out of the AFC East will prove difficult for Buffalo.

While the Bills have improved, they’re still in a division with the New England Patriots, A Miami Dolphins team that added Ndamukong Suh, and a New York Jets team which had the best offseason in all of football. That’s a large task for a first-year head coach trying to change the culture on a team that hasn’t seen winning in a long time, and isn’t sure who will be starting under center when Week-1 arrives.

Russell Wilson prepared to play season with or without new deal:

Russell Wilson has quarterbacked the Seattle Seahawks to consecutive Super Bowls, and it was widely expected that would earn the Seahawks quarterback a huge new deal before next season. While there is some debate about whether or not Wilson is an elite level quarterback, there’s no debate about the intangibles he brings to the table, and how much they mean to Seattle.

So why the hold up? Despite the fact that things around the team and Wilson have been pretty tight lipped, speculation has been that the two sides may be very far apart. Regardless of where the team and Wilson are in negotiations, the quarterback says he’s ready to play the final year of his deal under his current contract if he and the team can’t find common ground.

“Yeah, I’m prepared for that 100 percent, if that’s the case,” Wilson told the Seattle Times. “You know, I want to be here for a long time, but if that’s the case I’ve just got to get ready to play. I love the game, and I love being out here with these guys and just playing, and so ultimately I just take it one day at a time and just see where it takes me.”

Whether it gets done now or later, Wilson knows he’s going to be in Seattle for a long time. There’s no chance the team lets him get away after the performance he’s had early in his career. Like most players, Wilson isn’t as heavily involved in the negotiations as those of us on the outside want to believe. While Wilson’s agent is working on getting as much money as possible from Seattle, the quarterback is more concerned with how to get Seattle to a third consecutive Super Bowl.

“Ultimately I believe it will work out, hope that it does,” Wilson said. “I just take one day at a time. It’s a private matter. I don’t really talk about that kind of stuff. I’m here to play football and he’s there (his agent) to work out deals and figure out things. My focus is on football and trying to win football games for us.”

If Wilson does win more football games, and Seattle wins, gets to, or even sniffs another Super Bowl, the price tag for Wilson will get pretty pricey. The Seahawks are smart enough to know not to bet against Wilson by now, so the team would be smart to get the deal done as soon as possible, because the more we see Wilson play, the more valuable the young man looks.

NFL partners with Yahoo to offer first international live stream:

The NFL has decided internet giant Yahoo would be its exclusive partner to offer the Jacksonville Jaguars – Buffalo Bills game to an international audience via live stream, allowing Yahoo to offer the game on Yahoo properties globally including Yahoo, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Screen and Tumblr, which attract more than one billion monthly users.

It will be interesting to see how the NFL and Yahoo incorporate sites like Tumblr, but it’s clear that this is just a toe in the water of what the NFL must see as the future of expanding the game globally, and to a younger audience.

“The NFL has always been committed to being at the forefront of media innovation. Through this partnership with Yahoo—one of the world’s most recognizable digital brands—we are taking another important step in that direction as we continue to closely monitor the rapidly evolving digital media landscape,” said Roger Goodell, Commissioner of the National Football League.

For the NFL, this is a perfect opportunity to reach younger, more web driven viewership during an age where younger people are watching less conventional television, and for Yahoo, this is an opportunity to attract a very passionate consumer group.

“We’re thrilled that the NFL has chosen Yahoo for this historic opportunity,” said Marissa Mayer, President and CEO of Yahoo. “It marks a significant change in the way users can access this amazing content. The NFL and Yahoo have both long engaged football fans around the world. Our partnership provides the ultimate football experience—with digital availability, designed for the modern fan.”

According to The Nielsen Company, the 2014 NFL regular season reached 202.3 million unique viewers, representing 80 percent of all television homes and 68 percent of potential viewers in the U.S. NFL games accounted for the top 20 and 45 of the 50 most-watched TV shows among all programming last fall. Five NFL game telecasts this season were watched by at least 29 million viewers, up from just one in the 2013 season. For the third consecutive year, an NFL game was the week’s most-watched TV show in all 17 weeks of the season. In addition, at least two NFL games were the week’s most-watched TV shows in 16 weeks of the season.