I, too, hold onto fond memories of New York Jets yesteryear.
Herm Edwards emphatically sharing football’s objective in 2002, coupled with the ensuing play on the field, is something I’ll always remember. Bill Parcells’s all-business attitude of 1997 remains a template for future football program builders. And, yes, Rex Ryan‘s somewhat sluggish and off-kilter 40-yard sprint en route to Shonn Greene on a cold night in New England is forever imprinted in my brain as an awesome moment in time.
Yet, despite the nostalgia, longing for joyous times, and profound pride in one’s outfit, I’m also not silly enough to double down on wayward ideas.
Rex Ryan isn’t even close to an appropriate answer for the New York Jets.
Look, I firmly grasp what’s in the air. Jets fans are understandably beside themselves. Thanks in large part to ambitious expectations, this 2-6 start in 2024 is anything but enjoyable.
Anger fills the air, hysteria creeps in, and desperation becomes the norm—all in a subconscious effort to avoid the ultimate destination, which is apathy.
Without a firm grasp on the future, combined with very few answers to speak of, desperate ideas begin infiltrating the stratosphere.
On Monday’s postgame edition of “The Jake Asman Show,” after the Jets’ latest debacle—this time at the hands of the New England Patriots —former WFAN voice and all-time tortured fan Joe Benigno suggested the answer should be a blast from the past.
Rex Ryan.
Benigno doubled down on the idea later that same day when he hopped on with WFAN’s “Evan & Tiki.”
“This calls for complete desperation … but obviously, Jeff Ulbrich cannot be the head coach of this team,” Benigno said. “What I would do—and this is insane —but desperate times call for desperate measures. I would get Rex Ryan right now. Where are we going? What are we gonna be, 4-13? What the hell is the difference?
“He wants the job. Bring him in, put Ulbrich back at defensive coordinator, and let’s see what happens.”
Yes, that is insane, Joe.
So a 3-4 defensive mind would immediately take the head coaching reins of a staunchly immersed 4-3 personnel grouping while simultaneously demoting Jeff Ulbrich to defensive coordinator in hopes of this beleaguered team coming together as one unit? Is this seriously the suggestion?
But forget about the “hire Rex in-season” call-to-action for a moment. Rex Ryan shouldn’t even be considered a serious candidate after 2024 concludes, and only those who are in full-desperation mode and have no regard for future success would disagree.
Do we not remember whose actions began the downward spiral the Jets organization finds itself in today? It was one Rex Ryan. More precisely, it was the Rex Ryan-Mike Tannenbaum regime.
In 2011, the Jets were still relatively flying high. At 8-5, they were primed to make the postseason for a third-straight time, hoping to finally get over the hump that Rex so unapologetically announced as the goal, time and again—a Super Bowl championship.
Unfortunately, Rex’s Jets lost their last three, the middle of which came at the hands of the New York Giants on Christmas Eve. Victor Cruz did his 99-yard thing, forcing the Jets to watch the playoffs from home and propelling his Giants to another title.
From that point forward, it all fell apart.
Woody Johnson fired Tannenbaum after the 2012 season, and Rex hung on for a couple of seasons with John Idzik in charge of personnel. Or was he?
As much as Jets fans love to throw dirt on Idzik, remember, he was a numbers man without much (if any) personnel experience. Rex’s influence on personnel—both in the Mikey T and Idizk eras—was both evident and troublesome at the time.
If speaking purely on a coaching level, there’s no chance I’d dump on Rex in glorious fashion. The truth of that matter is this: I’d take Rex Ryan as my defensive coordinator on so many more days than not.
Rex’s defensive ideas largely align with my own:
- Be aggressive at the point of the attack.
- Find two gappers up front who eat blocks for breakfast.
- Be aggressive when calling plays.
- Change looks, in drastic fashion, depending on the opponent that week.
- Be fundamentally sound.
- Work as hard as possible, from a physical standpoint, in training camp and practice.
There’s just one nagging problem with these views: It’s a whole new football world.
The CBA limits what coaches can do in camp and practice. What Jets fans saw on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” circa 2010, with Kris Jenkins and Nick Mangold trying to tear through each other in goal line drills (my favorite as well), is no longer in play today.
Man, I sure miss those days, when the Jets were respectable and football coaches could still put their players to work at practice. But alas, those days are long gone, and so are Rex’s chances of success in the NFL.
Remember, Rex Ryan was placed in the perfect situation.
After Eric Mangini and Mike Tannenbaum built the program correctly—starting with the boring selections of D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold in 2006—the Jets were on the cusp of something great in 2008. Brett Favre had Mangini’s 2008 squad at 8-3, after a dominant victory in Tennessee.
Courtesy of Favre’s injuries and other miserable happenings, Jets fans watched Chad Pennington’s Miami Dolphins stun their team at home in the finale. To the shock of most, Woody fired Mangini and hired Rex, who took control of the most talented team in the league (sans the quarterback position).
To be placed in such an enviable position, with an all-star cast of coaches by his side (see Bill Callahan, Mike Westhoff, Bob Sutton, Anthony Lynn, Dennis Thurman, etc.), the franchise’s best offensive line, and arguably the best cover-cornerback in league history (see Darrelle Revis), only to have it all fall apart on your watch, is to fully eliminate yourself from any future consideration.
Period.
Never can a football coach have his team’s prospects get worse each year and have people think that he didn’t get a fair enough shake of things. Plus, did Rex Ryan even coach in Buffalo those two years? Is that just a bad dream for Jets fans who love to conveniently forget that period of the world? Perhaps so, considering Rex put the dagger in the heart of the 2015 Jets.
Jets fans in favor of the Rex idea continue to ask one question: “How could it get any worse?”
“My goodness gracious, Suzyn.” If you think the Jets’ current state of affairs is bad, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Unlike today’s state of affairs, which doesn’t bleed “circus” nearly as much as regimes of the past, Rex Ryan’s Jets brought their own spin on the circus while traveling from town to town. Sure, Joe Douglas deserves all the criticism in the world for not finishing the job, but he also put his fingerprints on this organization in many positive regards—most of which will serve this organization moving forward (as hard as it is to see this moment).
When Bill Parcells arrived, had success, and ultimately left the organization, what he bestowed the Jets was a decade of success that followed. Many a time did Herm Edwards praise Parcells for the culture he established before him. And it’s no coincidence that Woody’s first decade as owner was largely a great success (under Herm and Mangini).
Parcells set that up.
Ryan, on the other hand, set up the dark ages. His continual pursuit of the here and now provided no wiggle room for future fruitfulness. This is the man who thought bringing in Tim Tebow was a good idea, for crying out loud. This is the man who thought Tony Sparano would make a good offensive coordinator—in a league where teams were stretching the field as much as humanly possible.
“My goodness gracious, John.”
Recently, on ESPN New York’s “DiPietro & Rothenberg,” Ryan told Jets fans that he wasn’t politicking for the Jets job … while he was actually doing that very thing.
Would Rex Ryan coach the #Jets again?
He sure would.@HDumpty39 | @RothenbergESPN
LISTEN: https://t.co/jLsa28D8OE. pic.twitter.com/3AyrHPQCOI
— DiPietro & Rothenberg (@DRonESPN) October 28, 2024
Not a great sign.
To be fair, even those who are directly opposed to the Rex idea have to love some of the attributes he brings to the table. His idea of pride in the organization is a tremendous positive. His outward confidence, which bleeds throughout the depth chart, is another. And his sense of family is one that can’t ever be torn apart.
Polishing the positives off is his idea to record a voicemail for all season-ticket holders for the 2009 home opener, which led to one of the loudest Jets’ home environments I have ever experienced. An idea such as that is awesome beyond any words I could type on this page.
Yet, despite those positives, he represents the wrong idea for all the wrong reasons.
The New York Jets need to hire the right man for the job … in today’s football world. They must be balanced in their approach, with staunch consideration for modern schemes within modern rules while also seeking an accountable-craved lunatic who can get across to the modern player.
Rex falls short in each of those areas by a long shot—and I’m not even delving into how his stubbornness on the defensive end of things clashes with today’s way of playing, or how “ground-and-pound” is an impossible idea in 2024.
How could it get worse? Well, it can get worse if the desperation the fans are currently showcasing actually bleeds over into ownership, and they make a hire for all the wrong reasons.
It can get worse if Jets ownership appeases the mob.
Don’t become desperate, Woody. Stick to this program while making the correct changes. Identify the candidates who can create the perfect environment themselves, instead of settling for somebody who can only have success while thrust into the perfect environment.
The New York Jets are simply one good football man away from sustained success, and that man’s name is not Rex Ryan.
