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New Jersey – Will he stay or will he go? That is the $64,000 question. Is Rex Ryan going to be the Jets’ head coach in 2014?
In his press conference today, Ryan was asked repeatedly about his job status, considering he told the team on Saturday these could be his last two games.
And he basically kept repeating the same answer each time, “Guys, I think the entire organization is committed on trying to find a way to beat Miami.”
Well that might be the pragmatic thing to say, but I don’t think it’s the case.
Considering Ryan told the team on Saturday. “Guys, word on the street is that I’m getting fired. I’m not coming back,” there is no way there is a single-mindedness of purpose with the Jets’ football operation, where all anyone is focusing on is Miami.
No way.
I’m not saying there won’t be a solid preparation for Miami, but there is no question, coaches and others on the football side, will be making calls, texting and so forth, looking into other jobs.
That is the nature of the business, especially when the head coach tells everyone he’s likely going to get fired.
Guys need to start beating the bushes looking for their next job. There are college coaching staffs being formed right now.
So there is no question guys are multi-tasking this week.
Ryan was asked today if Woody Johnson or John Idzik approached him the last couple of days to discuss what he said to the team about his future.
“Our focus (and) what we talk about is getting ready to play against the Dolphins,” Ryan said. “That’s really where the conversations have been. After you play a game, you talk about the game that you just played.”
It is a mystery where this is going.
Idzik keeps things very close to the vest. He’s not running around blabbing about this to people. That isn’t his nature.
After the game, I saw Idzik walking through the locker room, and he looked like a man with a lot on his mind. He looked somewhat stressed out.
He’s in a very tough spot.
He probably wants to hire his own coach, but Ryan is very popular with the players and a lot of fans.
And Idzik made him into a somewhat sympathetic figure by making him play a lot of young players, not a great winning formula. The coach wasn’t dealt a great hand, so the fact that they were a wild card contender up until a eight days ago, impressed a lot of people.
If Idzik fires Ryan, he better have big shoulders, because he is going to get blasted by many reporters and many fans.
But if he thinks that he needs a different coach, with a different approach, to take his program to the next level, he needs to go for it.
He needs to ignore the white noise.
I do think that if he decides to bring Rex back, he’s going to demand some coaching staff changes.
December 23, 2013
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