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Rex Ryan: “The big thing is he has to understand that that play in itself, that was a big play in a game, but over his career, I don’t want there to be a catastrophic play that ends up cutting this guy’s career short.”

As the dust settles on Week 13 in the National Football League (save Monday Night Football of course), the New York Jets find themselves still in the thick of things in both the AFC East and the AFC Wild Card races. The Jets improved to 6-6 last Thursday night when they took down the Buffalo Bills in Toronto, 19-13. With the Miami Dolphins beating the New England Patriots on Sunday, the Jets are just one game back of New England (tiebreakers not included) in the East with four games to go. The Jets also kept pace with the Miami Dolphins and caught up with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who fell to 6-6 on Sunday after losing to the Raiders. The Jets win didn’t come without a price though. Rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez was lost to injury late in the game to a knee injury when he opted to dive head first for first down yardage rather than taking the more cautious approach and sliding. Now, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but remember, it wasn’t long ago at all that Jets head coach Rex Ryan had brought in Joe Girardi to work with the franchise quarterback about sliding properly and subsequently taking care of his (expensive) body. The good news though is that Sanchez may be able to play next week against Tampa Bay considering it was just a PCL injury rather than something more serious like an MCL or ACL issue.

Ryan joined The Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio New York last Friday following the Jets win to talk about the status of Sanchez, why he sounded off about Sanchez’s proclivity to dive not slide to the media rather than just talking to him privately (he has already, as you’ll hear), why he’s more interested in keeping Sanchez healthy for the long haul than he is about the results of any one game during his rookie year, as well as about how he feels his team is as dangerous as anybody’s heading down the home stretch, the amazing play of cornerback Darrelle Revis, and why he thinks it’s still too early for him or his team to do too much scoreboard watching.

On the status of injured quarterback Mark Sanchez:

“Well, we got the MRI back and basically he’s got a sprained PCL in his right leg. So, that’s good news for us; it’s something we’re optimistic about. Hopefully he’ll be to play this coming up game against Tampa, but again, we’ll see how he feels. Obviously if we were playing tomorrow or Sunday, he wouldn’t be ready to go. But hopefully by the time we play Tampa he’ll be feeling like he can play.”

On his comments following the game about Mark Sanchez needing to slide:

“Well I don’t disagree with you. It was a huge play and it did give us a first down, and we got another set of downs. But it’s risk versus reward. We’ve got to make sure that Mark understands that we need him around, that we need him healthy. Would the game have been, you know, any closer or different, or would we have extended our lead had Mark played? Who knows, but for us to be successful, we need Mark in that lineup as much as possible. And the big thing is he has to understand that that play in itself, that was a big play in a game, but over his career, I don’t want there to be a catastrophic play that ends up cutting this guy’s career short. And I think that that’s the big picture.”

On if he thinks he may be shortchanging Sanchez’s best attributes as an athlete and competitor:

“A little bit. Obviously he’s a great competitor there’s no question about it. We just want him to play smart. I know Steve Young might have gotten a concussion and stuff sliding, but I’ve seen a ton of quarterbacks careers be shortened by not trying to slide, just getting the heck knocked out of them – broken ribs, and all that kind of stuff. Steve McNair was about as tough a guy as I’ve ever seen and he had his sternum broke. And obviously Chad Pennington here with the shoulder. So you see more of those when you’re diving forward than you do by sliding.”

On if he wonders if he may be forcing Sanchez to think too much out there rather than just going out and ‘being a gamer’:

“No, I want him to be a gamer, but I want him to be healthy in these games. My concern is for his safety and for his health. I’ve been on the other side plenty times and knocked plenty quarterbacks out by doing just the opposite. A lot of guys get knocked out that way and their careers get shortened, and I don’t want that to happen to this young man. I think he’s got a chance to be an outstanding player, and that’s the message. You know, he moves great outside the pocket, he’s got a great pocket presence and everything else. It’s just when he takes off to run, I want it to be instinctive where he slides instead of going head first. That’s the only thing I’m saying.”

On why he didn’t just go to Mark to hammer home the point rather than calling him out in the media:

“I mean, I tell him that. I’ve told him forever. I’ve tried everything known to man with him. I brought Joe Girardi in to teach him how to slide. So this isn’t something we came on to two days ago. This is something that happened in training camp. We tried to fix it then, we talk about it all the time, and I just want him to understand, you know, we got to find a way to get it done. And if it takes me to get it done through the media, through whatever, trust me, anything I’ve ever said to the media, I’ve told him a hundred times. So this, we’re joined at the hip. This is a guy that we laid it out there when we drafted him – traded up all those players and picks and everything else to move up to get this guy – we want him to be the face of our franchise for a long time, not just one year.”

On just how big the win was for the Jets as they try to keep pace in the AFC North and AFC Wild Card races:

“Well it was big. Every win’s a big win.  You know, that win was a lot of momentum. We’ve won two games in the last five days. You know, one thing that nobody talks about is we have the #1 defense in the National Football League, and I think everybody coming in to the season – there’d be a lot of skeptics out there that maybe thought that we weren’t going to be that good on defense. I think we’re one of the top rushing teams in the league. You know, we’re a team nobody wants to play and we’ve always said that. I think as long as we’re healthy and holding good account of ourselves – again, our focus is just going to be on Tampa Bay. Our players are going to have a couple days off, then get right back at and get after Tampa.”

Listen here to Ryan with Michael Kay on ESPN Radio in New York

Tags: AFC playoff race, AFC Wild Card standings, ESPN Radio New York, Mark Sanchez injured, New York Jets, Rex Ryan