The Jets hired Rex Ryan as their head coach 980 days ago. He's only caused divisive opinions on about 978 of them.
Ryan finds himself under attack this week from Jets legend Joe Namath, who sounded more like "Joe Willie from Beaver Falls. First time, long time," when he ripped Ryan for pumping up his team too much.
This criticism of Ryan has to stop. It's ridiculous. People forget what this franchise was like when Ryan took over. Do you want Mealy-Mouthed Mangini back saying nothing every week?
Ryan's braggadocio is an easy target when the Jets lose a game like Sunday's. The vultures circle and scream about Ryan putting a target on the Jets' backs or that the team is too cocky.
BELIEF SYSTEM: Joe Namath has it wrong: Rex Ryan's confident coaching style fuels his Jets team.
The 34-24 loss to the Raiders had less to do with Ryan's pregame speeches and more to do with a lack of tackling by his defense. If you want to rip him for that, go ahead. But to question how he prepares his team when none of us really knows what goes on in team meetings is a waste of breath.
Listen to what Jason Taylor, who spent 2010 with the Jets, told NBC in Miami about playing for Ryan:
"He's the anti-normal NFL coach," Taylor said. "But the beauty of him, and what his players like, is he's ultra-confident and optimistic."
Taylor talked about the Jets' playoff victory over the Patriots in January. Though the Jets had lost 45-3 to the Pats a month earlier, Taylor said Ryan made the Jets believe there was no chance the Patriots could beat them again.
"I promise to you on my kids' eyeballs there wasn't a person on our football team that thought we were going to lose to New England," Taylor said. "That's how confident we were.
"It was ingrained in us so much that it became us."
Namath is the better former Jet, but Taylor is the better source on this one because he actually has been in Ryan's practices and meetings.
It's funny that this week's opponent is the Ravens. Ryan got his coaching degree in Baltimore, and desperately wanted to be the team's head coach when Brian Billick was fired after the 2007 season. But Ryan's style even hurt him there.
The Ravens passed him over to hire John Harbaugh. Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti had not addressed the reason he did not hire Ryan until this summer during a conference call with season-ticket holders.
"From a chemistry standpoint . . . we really liked John and we thought it was going to be tougher for Rex to bring the whole team together after him spending 10 years on one side of the ball that was the dominant side of the ball," Bisciotti said.
Source:
