Current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan was the New York Jets head coach from 2009-14, and with that job now open for 2025, it sounds like the defensive mastermind wants that position again. Ryan is using his platform as a media analyst to push himself forward for the Jets head coach vacancy. While appearing on ESPN New York's Bart & Hahn, Ryan laid out his case to his former player, Bart Scott, and his co-host Alan Hahn about why Woody Johnson should re-hire him.
“I look at it this way, blow it up? We’re going to blow the opponents up,” Ryan told Scott and Hahn (h/t New York Post). “There’s way too much talent on this team to play the way we’ve been playing. How hard can you get a guy to play? That’s the thing. Nobody has seen a team that is going to play as hard as this team’s going to play in the future, trust me. If I’m the guy, trust me.”
The one thing we all know for sure about the Jets is that anything is possible. So, why not bring back the coach the team has had the most success under this century?
How was the Jets' last Rex Ryan experience?
Rex Ryan took over as Jets head coach in 2009 after winning a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens as a defensive line coach in 2000 and calling the defensive plays as coordinator for the perenially playoff-bound squad from 2005-08. That success got him te job in New Jersey when the franchise was looking to replace Eric Mangini.
When Ryan took the helm, the Jets had their two most successful seasons since the Bill Parcells era of the late 1990s. He took the team to back-to-back AFC Championship games, which is something no Jets head coach had ever accomplished.
Over the next four seasons though, Ryan and the Jets couldn't replicate that success or even make it back to the postseason. The boisterous headman started his NY career 24-14 (including playoffs) in his first two seasons before going 28-38 in his final four campaigns.
So, it was a mixed bag for Ryan during his Jets tenure, and after a subpar 15-16 record with the Buffalo Bills, he hasn't coached in the NFL since Week 16 of the 2016 season. But maybe a link to the (somewhat) successful past and a kick in the butt from a loudmouth coach is exactly what this moribund franchise needs.
