IMO Whaley comes off as someone who realizes his responsibility is to the organization and not to the media, and if he has to awkwardly fall on the sword instead of revealing the nature of sensitive internal conversations to the media then he's willing to do it.
With respect to your continued defense of Ryan, another year means more devoted resources to a failing coach. Repeatedly comparing Schwartz to Rex 2016 defense is pointless. When they inherited them, one defense got better under one coach, one got worse, and not just a little. Despite the bluster and addition of his guys, it didn't get better. And the kicker in all of this is IT WASN'T THE PROBLEM WHEN HE GOT HERE!! Instead of fixing the offense and taking advantage of the window with a dominant defense, he closed the window.