It looks like one guy is already trying to get his foot in the door to become the Jets' next head coach.
Rex Ryan, an ESPN analyst and former Jets and Bills coach, appears to be campaigning hard to be considered a candidate for the job during an appearance on ESPN New York's “Bart & Hahn.”
Ryan argued against blowing up the Jets roster when he began making the point that he would be able to pull off a win with the team's current talent pool.
“I look at it this way, 'Blow it out?'” “We're going to blow it out,” Ryan told hosts Alan Hahn and Bart Scott, who played for Ryan during his time at the Jets. “There's too much talent on this team to play the way we've been playing. How hard is it to get a guy to play? That's the thing. No one has seen a team that will play as hard as this team will in the future, trust me. “If I'm the man, trust me.”
Ryan served as the Jets' head coach during one of the franchise's most successful stretches in recent memory, though the atmosphere quickly changed.
The Jets went 46-50 during Ryan's career from 2009-14, which included back-to-back trips to the AFC Championship Game in his first two seasons.
However, the success quickly faded, and he ended up losing records in two of his final three seasons.
Ryan argued during a radio appearance Thursday that no other candidate could embrace the culture of the Jets.
“That's what's going to separate me from all these other people you're bringing in. Gruden's henchmen or whatever. “Give me a break,” he continued. “They're not the New York Jets. I'm all about the Jets. And the great thing is you get a second chance at it and that doesn't happen very often.” Well, when that happens, it's usually special. We'll find out if I get that opportunity or not. If not, I hope they have a hell of a guy in there because I still want to be a Jets fan to be so, But when I look around I know that no one is better than me.
Ryan used another ESPN New York pitch earlier this week to suggest the Jets would be in a better position than they are now if he was at the helm.
The former NFL coach said on “DiPietro & Rothenberg” on Monday that the team “probably goes undefeated” if he gets the job.
The response came after he was asked where he thought the team would be if he were still coaching them.
The Jets are 3-8 entering their bye week, their season almost over after starting the year with Super Bowl aspirations.
