Woody went all in for Jets' Ryan right from start July 30, 2009 By Bob Glauber bob.glauber@newsday.com As far as Woody Johnson is concerned, there was something different about Rex Ryan right from the start. The Jets' owner interviewed nearly a dozen candidates for the coaching vacancy he created when he fired Eric Mangini after last year's 9-7 season. But it all kept coming back to Ryan, the Ravens' effervescent defensive coordinator who is as quick with a one-liner as he is with drawing up a complicated blitz. "Rex really was different than the other interviews we had from the standpoint of being able to talk about the team in a pragmatic way and showing how you build that sense of team," Johnson said yesterday from his New York offices overlooking Fifth Avenue. "We talked for three hours about team and teamwork, with his 'KILL' philosophy of 'Keep It Likable and Learnable.' Rex does represent something different." Here's how different: When the Jets report for training camp Thursday at Cortland State University in central New York, you cannot imagine a more diametrically opposed atmosphere around a team than the one Ryan has created compared to the Mangini years. Where Mangini was overly cautious about revealing even the smallest bit of information, Ryan will comment on just about anything. Where Mangini never said anything remotely controversial about an opponent, Ryan has already said he won't kiss Bill Belichick's Super Bowl rings, and he even engaged in a series of verbal sparring sessions with Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder. Mangini rarely, if ever, talked about the prospects of winning a Super Bowl; the first words Ryan spoke at his introductory news conference were about meeting President Obama at the White House after a Super Bowl victory. The Jets' owner thinks he got it right this time. And not just from a football perspective; Ryan has rubbed off on Johnson on a more personal level as well. Several weeks ago, Ryan admitted he suffers from dyslexia. Wednesday, Johnson confided publicly for the first time he has the same ailment. "I started seeing the symptoms a while ago, when I was in my 40s," said Johnson, 62. "You confuse 'b' and 'd' and '9' and '6.' It's hard to read. Today, young kids are diagnosed and you can remediate it through exercises, so it's not as big a deal. Fortunately, Rex is very forthcoming about it. We've talked about it a bunch." At every level, Johnson believes the atmosphere around his team is now calibrated properly. "I look at it as an evolution of where we've come from," said Johnson, entering his 10th season as owner. "We've got a guy who comes from a family of defensive coaches. His father [Buddy] was a defensive coach. His brother [Rob] is a defensive coach. It's a family business, and they take it extremely seriously. Even Rex's son [Seth] has the bug. You can see the enthusiasm." Of course, there are no guarantees the Jets will become a Super Bowl team during Ryan's tenure. After all, his father was one of the greatest defensive coaches in NFL history, but he never got the Eagles or Cardinals to the Super Bowl as a head coach. Yet Rex Ryan's promise to his players of an "all-in" mentality will ultimately serve them well, he said. "I'm not one of those guys to keep the expectations low so I'll look good if we win more games than people expect," Ryan said. "I'm not that way. As far as I'm concerned, you try to win it all every time." That go-for-it-all approach has proved infectious in the Jets' locker room, where players have expressed a palpable sense of relief at getting away from Mangini's robotic, scripted and often smothering approach. "Instead of guys being so locked in and so worried about making a mistake, it's changed dramatically," wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said. "Guys are letting talent take over." Ryan's open and gregarious style has even had a positive impact on the business side of the organization. "Rex always says, 'Let me know what you need me to do,' " said Matt Higgins, the Jets' executive vice president, business operations. "He wants to reach the fans." A championship in the not-too-distant future? Johnson believes it can one day happen under Ryan. "We bring up the 1969 Namath team a lot, and the one thing those players always express was the incredible feeling of team, where they felt united as a force and it's lasted their whole lives," Johnson said. "That's one of the things that led to Rex. That's the goal." The work begins today.
So basically Woody is banking on a Super Bowl because he picked someone completely the opposite of Mangini.. heheh... that is one way to go I suppose. It's hard not to like Ryan I find. And he comes from pretty good stock where football is concerned. Still, it will be nice to see a long string of W's rather than the lip service endorsements that are going around. Label me "cautiously optimistic".
+1 I like Ryan as well....and it should be a fun season to watch with him at the controls. But yeah...if he doesn't win....I'm afraid he'll come across as a "used car salesman" with all the talking he did this offseason.
We might have to exercise some patience before it all comes together.. especially where the offense is concerned. That is incredibly hard for some folks to do. I am finally hopeful that we will see a defense to be proud of finally...
Hehe, that's basically what he did when he replaced Herm. I feel the same way. I am a fan of Rex Ryan when it comes to his press conferences, when it comes to his background, when it comes to the defensive philosophy he had in Baltimore. He is going to have to earn my fandom as HC of the Jets.
The Jets are a team that could go 8-8 in 2009 (which is 1 game worse than 9-7 in 2008) but be improved.
I agree. Luckily he is calling the defense on Sunday still so regardless of his aptitude as a HC, we will have his DC prowess which is well proven. If he can get close to the defense he had in Baltimore that will put him well on his way to being a successful HC.
You often get a momentary boost in team performance when you go to a polar opposite coach. Veterans like the fact that the thing that was missing is suddenly there due to the coaching change and they perk up after falling into a slumber. Rookies and second year players are always on edge about their roster slots and where they fit and having a new guy in gives them the chance to reset the odds in their favor, especially with a few more vets getting cut due to the new guy having no real favorites. The Jets in particular have swung back and forth between having a stern disciplinarian and a more happy-go-lucky player oriented coach in the last decade or so. Parcells/Groh in the regimented system followed by Herm Edwards and his wide-eyed "you play to win the game" that involved exhorting his players to succeed, not drilling them until the pads stuck to their shoulders, followed by Eric Mangini and bootcamp with all it's attendant small humiliations, and now we have Rex Ryan who seems like a much nicer, more likeable guy. One of our big chances to succeed next year is that the players just let 'er rip and have some fun in the new system. People like Shaun Ellis and David Harris are very capable of having monster seasons if they just let go and play to their natural ability without worrying if they were in the exact right spot at the exact right moment and worry about what's going to get said in the unit meetings as they go over film.
To me, Ryan isn't the question mark this year. Shotty is still the BIG question mark, and in all the Ryan generated hype and excitement, people seem to have forgotten all about this guy and the questions surrounding him. Yea, it's not hard to believe, now, that Mangini could have been controlling the O more than he should have and not letting Shotty do his thing, but we don't know for sure about that. It certainly would be a convenient place to lay the blame, but that doesn't make it so. I recall that a lot of people had been calling for Shotty's head, and not just last year either. I'm not really sure what we have in him at this point. Is he truely the brilliant offensive mind that we thought we saw glimpses of back in 2006, or is his offensive approach too heavily laden with gimmicky glitz, and is otherwise often ineffective and unimaginative, like the offense we have seen all too frequently since then ? Of course, we know that there were many other circumstances that probably contributed to the ineffective offense as well... I guess we'll simple have to wait and see.......
Good post. I never forgot about Schotty, and I will be paying close attention to his gameplans this season, regardless of who we have starting at QB this season. He has a promising rookie campaign at OC, be he has failed to impress me since 2006. Apparently we are supposed to believe that the terrible offensive playcalling in 2007 and 2008 were a result of micromanagement by Mangini... maybe it's true, maybe it's a bunch of crap, but the coach that is under the most pressure to prove himself (as far as I am concerned) is definitely Brian Schottenheimer. He was one of my main concerns going into the 2008 campaign.
good post. Schotty certainly has flown under the radar since Rex Ryan was hired. I'm interested to see how the offense will evolve without Mangini's influence over Schotty (if there indeed was any influence). However...the Jets still need a #1 wideout....and i think to guage Schotty's playcalling fairly.....all the pieces need to be in place before the criticisms start flying back and forth. just my .02
How much of a pass is Schott going to get with this offense though? With the question mark at QB and the lack of dept at WR... I would think any OC would have his run of issues through a season.
Well, we all get "the let's get a few wins under our belt mentallity" before we go ape shit, but it starts with instilling confidence in our team. I believe Ryan has done that before they even stepped on the field. All he said was our team will not be afraid of any team and we will not kiss someone's ass. So what's wrong with that? his vision is to win the superball and by God we should always have that as our goal. He did not say we are better than the competition at this point. I rather see my team go all out and loose a close one than the "cautiosly optimistic" team of the past that played not to loose in the 4th quarter. I am very optimistic that win or loose we are going to be a much more exciting team to watch and much harder for the competition to prepare for.
He won't get much of a pass if you ask me. Not that it matters anyway because this is about as far as he goes with the Jets. It'll be to his benefit to wow the league with some smart, efficient offensive game-plans. He has no choice but succeed this season if he plans on getting any HC jobs for 2010. I think he will do the right thing in the long-run. It'll come down to execution. Sure we have question marks at QB and WR, but for the most part we have most of the key positions filled out. We have a great OL, a stable of good/great AND play-making RB's, and a pass-catching TE that can stretch the field. Our D will try to keep games close, so no one is asking Schotty to win us games (or at least very often) just manage them. If he can string a few drives and pivotal 3rd down conversions, we should be fine. Maybe even surprise a couple of ppl out there.
I just remember the fuss made when Woody lobbied like he did that Schotty be a part of the package when Rex signed on. If we look good on offense next season, or win enough games for the playoffs, he might get another shot as HC somewhere else. Otherwise, we might be stuck with him for a while if he's sitting in Woody's pocket. The situation seems to be set up for failure if the guys offense craps out on us this year. Hopefully it was a one time thing Woody stepping in for him and after that he'll get reviewed by Rex and Tanny, and the owner stays out of it. I do think we have enough of an OL and running game to grind it out and play "safe" football on offense. It'll be boring and uninspiring, but if it helps us win, so be it.
Hey, I won't complain about them showing some confidence and swagger. It is good to see. It is a different attitude around Jets-land for sure. But with it comes a level of expectation too. It doesn't do any good to talk the talk if you keep falling down everytime you try to walk the walk. And just because a team isn't out there talking about Super Bowl wins or talking smack about another team doesn't mean it doesn't have confidence, or a winning goal oriented team (meaning aiming for the Super Bowl). Mangini was very tight lipped and I imagine that is in part because when you fall short others will want to make you eat your words. Namely the media.
