Former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan believes the Green Bay Packers would beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
Rex Ryan is back in the prediction business. Many onlookers would think he’d walk away from the business after his blustery New York Jets predictions a decade ago, but the ESPN-employed media member now gets paid to mix it up.
While on ESPN’s Get Up, Ryan discussed the Green Bay Packers hitting their stride at the right time. The former Jet head man believes Aaron Rodgers‘s team would knock off the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs if both squads make it to the Super Bowl.
“They’re peaking at the right time,” Ryan said. “Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, is going into Lambeau Field in the playoffs and beating them. I don’t think that. Quite honestly, if Green Bay takes this team down to Tampa for the Super Bowl, if the Kansas City Chiefs are there, I think Green Bay is going to beat them.”
Ryan, 58, hasn’t coached in the NFL since Week 16 of the 2016 season. He finished 7-8 that year as the Buffalo Bills head coach.
“I think they’re clearly the best team in the NFC,” Ryan added.
Green Bay destroyed the Tennesee Titans, 40-14, this past Sunday night. Only one win separates them from the No. 1 seed and the only bye on the NFC side of the playoffs.
Interestingly, the Packers’ defensive coordinator is Mike Pettine, one of Ryan’s guys. Pettine was Ryan’s defensive coordinator with the Jets from 2009 to 2012. Everybody knows Ryan’s tendency to back his guys at any turn—an admirable quality that was often witnessed during postgame pressers in New York.
Nonetheless, it’s tough to shoot down Ryan’s prediction based on the way Green Bay is currently playing.
Despite Ryan’s many misses in the past, he did make one in 2011 that hit right on the money. After being dealt a major blow by Victor Cruz, Ryan hopped on the airwaves to tell everybody how he thought the New York Giants would run the table. They did exactly that when Eli Manning‘s Giants knocked off Tom Brady‘s New England Patriots for a second time.
If the NFL does get a rematch of the first Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes will have a lot to say about Rex Ryan’s bold prediction.
