Sports Radio Interviews

Jerricho Cotchery and the Jets Head to San Diego this Weekend to Play the Hottest Team in the NFL

Rex Ryan has been trying to tell people all season long that his team should be in the Super Bowl conversation.  He feels like they are good enough to win the Super Bowl.  From the minute he arrived in New York, Ryan has brought an aura of confidence and a swagger to the Jets.  It was a rocky regular season and at times it looked like the Jets would miss out on the playoffs after getting off to a great start.  However, New York earned a playoff spot (don’t try telling Rex that his team backed in) and won their first playoff game this past weekend.  I think this can be a dangerous team.  While they have a rookie quarterback that could end up being their downfall, they have the best running game in the NFL, they have playmaking wide receivers, they have the best defense in the NFL, and they have a true shutdown cornerback in Darrelle Revis whose resume this season is incredible.  That formula usually works pretty well in January and it was plenty good enough to knock the AFC North champion Bengals from the playoffs last weekend.  Jets fans are certainly hoping that it will be good enough this weekend as well against the hottest team in the NFL.

New York will take on the Chargers in the second round of the playoffs on Sunday.  San Diego will go into their first playoff game this season coming off a bye but still riding an 11 game winning streak and their quarterback, Philip Rivers, playing as good as anyone in the NFL at that position right now.  The Chargers are favored in the game but if there’s one thing that is certain it that the Jets won’t back down, they won’t be intimidated heading to San Diego, and they’ll bring a swagger into Qualcomm. 

Jerricho Cotchery joined WFAN in New York with Joe and Evan to talk about the confidence that the Jets have, the development of Mark Sanchez, Braylon Edwards’ tendency to drop passes ,and the game this weekend against the Chargers.

 On the confidence Coach Rex Ryan has in his team:

 “It was just another, I guess, another step in showing his confidence in us.  We’ve gotten a great feel from him the entire year.  He has a lot of confidence in us, that we can really get it done this year.  Its just been building throughout the year and that was another step for us to show how much confidence he has in his team.  We know we have the players on this team to get it done.  But, it’s all about us going out there and executing the plays and doing the little things right throughout the game to come out with the victory.”

On the growth of QB Mark Sanchez during his rookie season:

 “He did a great job.  He has been getting better every week.  You can tell in practice.   He has just been getting more and more comfortable and he is picking a great time to do it.  He is just doing a great job right now.  He has to continue to build on that and make sure that he continues to do that same thing he has been doing to get us to this point.  But, he has been doing a phenomenal job and I think everyone has been helping him along and, hopefully, we can keep this thing going.”

His thoughts on WR Braylon Edwards and his tendency to drop passes:

“Well, I think he is going to adjust.  It’s probably something small.  It happened to be two deep balls in consecutive weeks.  I think it’s something small that he can correct.  But, he stepped up later on in the game and made a huge third down catch for us.  It allowed us to go up 14 points later on in that drive.  So, he has been doing a great job for us, man.  He has made a ton of those plays in practice.  Fridays practice, he made a one hand grab on a deep ball.  So, it’s probably something little that he can take care of.  He is a professional, so he will get it done. “

On the Jets Divisional playoff matchup against the San Diego Chargers:

“This is a tough group. Like you said, they won 11 straight games.  They have been on a roll and they beat some great teams along the way.  Dallas is playing some great football right now and they went down to Dallas and beat those guys.  So, they are playing some good football right now. What we have to do is focus in very hard this week on our preparation and try to figure these guys out and try to give ourselves a great chance of winning this game.” 

Listen to Jerricho Cotchery on WFAN in New York here 

Tags: Braylon Edwards dropped passes, Jerricho Cotchery, Mark Sanchez, New York Jets, New York Jets vs San Diego Chargers, NFL, NFL Playoffs, Rex Ryan, WFAN