By 
Rex Ryan has never lacked any confidence, so it’s not surprising when he displays it again here. He’s grilled a bit more on the addition of Tim Tebow to his New York Jets, but he stands behind the move firmly, particularly when asked how Tebow could be such a worry to opposing defensive coordinators given that Ryan and the Jets posted 13 three-and-outs against Tebow when he was with the Broncos. Ryan essentially says he’s a great defensive coordinator and that most others don’t have a background like his and that’s why he was able to stop the option-style offense.
He says Tebow is a pain to gameplan for, even when not the starting quarterback. I still don’t see it, but I guess we’ll have to wait to find out. Rex Ryan joined WFAN in New York with Boomer and Carton to discuss defensive coordinators losing sleep over Tebow, how Mark Sanchez has handled the addition of Tebow, his defense stopping Tebow last year, a potential Darrelle Revis holdout, first-round pick Quinton Coples and making sure he gets back to having a strong sense of his team’s identity.
The fact that you keep saying that defensive coordinators won’t be able to sleep at night because they won’t know what to do with Tim Tebow on the Jets is comical:
“I disagree, and I’ve been calling defenses a long time. The reason I say that is it makes you defend 11-on-11. Usually, you turn, you give the ball to a back, it’s 11-on-10, basically. The quarterback’s not blocking anybody. So when you get in there, that’s the difference. When you look at what the Pittsburgh Steelers did to stop Tebow and that offense running the football, they ran zero coverage. Why? Because they had to have enough guys in there to be sound and stop the run. Well, then he can burn you on the pass. So there’s a lot of different things that these things present.”
How has Mark Sanchez handled the addition of Tebow?:
“Sanchez looks great. This is the best he’s looked. He looks tremendous back there and there’s no quarterback controversy here. Mark is our quarterback; he’s our starting quarterback. Obviously Tebow can run the wildcat and things and be the primary backup quarterback, but Mark is our starting quarterback and he looks tremendous back there.”
What about the fact that your offense had 11 three-and-outs against Tebow and the Broncos?:
“I’ll say this: I stopped a ton of option things when I was in college. Not everybody has the same background I have. I know, for whatever reason, I’m a decent defensive coach. … I got a lot of great coaches that coach with me right now, so not everybody plays you the same way. I can tell you this, from a preparation standpoint … it is a real pain. How much time are we going to do it? How many times are we going to run it? … You have no idea how much we’re going to do it, so it kills your preparation time.”
On the potential for a third Darrelle Revis holdout:
“I can tell you one thing: Obviously Revis is a great player and I’m looking forward to having him on our team in 2012. Anything beyond that, I’m just getting focused and ready for the season.”
On Quinton Coples, a first-round pick that drew a lot of criticism:
“He can’t play, so he’s just going to be an average guy. In other words, I expect him to play a ton. There’s no question. The kid’s going to be out there probably 90 percent of the snaps. Some of the comparisons and the comments that were made about Quinton, the negative comments, were said about Haloti Ngata when he came out. And Haloti’s done pretty well for himself. He’s a different kind of player than Haloti. … But, still, those same comparisons, a lot of times they say those things about defensive linemen.”
How do you reconcile losing the team or losing the sense of the team last year?:
“I don’t think I ever lost the team. I never had a great pulse of it, knowing what was going on in the meeting rooms, different things like that that contributed to some of those issues. But I never lost the team. There isn’t one player on this team that’s not my guy. … So much has been placed on last year and things. Let me tell you, I definitely learned from it. But, for me, I’m going to be myself, I’m going to be in all those meetings, be around the guys as much as I possibly can.”
Comments