Former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan hasn’t been shy about his willingness to return as head coach of the team, and that virtually public plea continued this week in the wake of the team’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
Following the Jets Week 11 loss to the Colts, their record fell to 3-8, ending a season that began with Super Bowl aspirations before Thanksgiving. Two days later, general manager Joe Douglas was fired, which followed head coach Robert Saleh being fired in October.
Given his previous stint as the Jets’ head coach — the most successful period in the team’s modern history, as they went to two straight AFC Championship games — and his current gig as a prominent ESPN analyst, Rex Ryan has obviously been asked a ton about the Jets’ situation, including whether or not he’d return to the team.
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Not only has Ryan indicated that he would, but he also recently said that if he was the coach of the team this year, they’d probably be undefeated.
“The coaching is an absolute disaster. I’m not sugarcoating it — it’s been bad, it stinks, and there’s no way around it,” Ryan told ESPN New York’s DiPietro and Rothenberg following the Jets’ Week 11 home loss to the Indianapolis Colts. “This guy, your defensive coordinator and head coach — good luck with that for a guy that’s never done it.”
When asked how Gang Green would be fairing this season if Ryan, who coached the Jets from 2009 to 2014, the ever-confident defensive guru claimed they’d be undefeated.
“Probably undefeated. That’s just me,” Ryan, who has never lacked bravado, said.
The idea of Ryan returning to the Jets isn’t just a pipe dream of his (or some fans), as ProFootballTalk speculated that it’s something that could actually be in play given the disastrous state of the Jets and the limited options their situation likely gives the organization.
“There’s a belief among some who know how Woody operates that, given the current state of the team, he might decide to try to recapture a little of the (almost) glory days, when Rex got the Jets within sniffing distance of a Super Bowl. It’s not just crazy spitballing.”
The crux of Mike Florio’s speculation is that Woody Johnson, overseeing the longest active playoff drought in the four major American sports leagues, is such a bad owner that it’s difficult to imagine who would want to take the job.
“First, who else would take the job? No one with options will opt to work for Woody. For Rex, who has been there and done that and might want to go there and do that again, there’s no one else clamoring to hire him to be a head coach. It’s a perfect fit.
As a Jets fan, the prospect of Ryan returning is a complex one, as the pros and cons of re-hiring the 61 year old are both undeniable.
On one hand, Ryan last coached in the NFL in 2016, and the league has changed quite a bit since then. Ryan’s successful Jets teams were able to build around a mediocre quarterback in Mark Sanchez due to its elite defense and run game — that formula hasn’t been entirely prevalent in recent years, although passing and scoring does seem to be on a downward trend. The fact was and remains: you need a franchise quarterback.
At 61 years old, Ryan would also instantly become the second-oldest head coach in the NFL behind only the 66-year-old three-time Super Bowl winning Andy Reid, suggesting that there may be too great of a generational divide for him to relate to the current crop of pros.
On the other, however, Ryan hasn’t entirely left the game as he’s spent recent years as an analyst for ESPN and has always been known as a player’s coach, which is a skill that’s likely permanent.
The biggest argument in favor of Ryan, however — at least as far as this tortured NYJ fan is concerned — is his passion for the organization, which is something that the franchise desperately needs right now. The Aaron Rodgers era has sucked the soul out of the franchise and has left it in a truly dire position, as they’ll enter the offseason in need of a new general manager, head coach, and quarterback.
If there’s an archetypal head coach that could lead the organization through frankly depressing times through sheer passion and energy alone, it’s Ryan. At this rate, it certainly seems like Ryan is going to interview for the position, at the very least.
