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New Jersey – Was Rex Ryan out of work long enough as a head coach, to learn from some of the mistakes he might have made his first time around as an NFL coach?
I’ve brought it up repeatedly some of the issues.
So did Josh Thomas.
But Ryan brought his entire defensive staff with him to Buffalo, including the two guys who stood next to him during the games, who, to me, weren’t the best guys to be your right and left hand men.
After watching the Jets’ defense this year, aside from a couple of games, did you think this unite was coached on a level, that you would bring the entire staff, en masse, to Buffalo?
But Rex is blindly loyal.
And it could hurt him in Buffalo.
Can’t argue with bringing Karl Dunbar up there. He does a great job.
As the old expression goes, “Where this is smoke there is fire.”
Within a four month period, first you had the bizarre Dimtri Patterson situation, a guy with an impeccable reputation, reportedly going AWOL for a preseason game (he wasn’t going to play in), and then you had Thomas saying he wasn’t coached properly.
What is my point? Two situations pointing to dysfunction, or a lack of proper communication with two defensive backs. That doesn’t pass the smell test.
I will leave it at that.
Dennis Thurman isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. He turns some people the wrong way, and that includes some players, but Rex loves him.
We will see how this turns out.
My point is that I don’t think Rex Ryan learned anything from being fired by the Jets.
There wasn’t enough time to reflect.
And his press conference was history repeating itself, with bold proclamations.
Here is the bottom line.
Rex has a personality that lights up a room.
Terry Pegula is a brilliant businessman. He started with nothing, and is now with a little under $5 billion, most of the money made in the energy sector.
But the problem with these coaching interviews with owners is they often don’t focus on the right things.
I know Bills GM Doug Whaley was in room, but he’s pretty inexperienced himself.
So you have a new NFL owner, and a green GM, and Rex hit it out of the park in his two meetings with them.
Now he wouldn’t have hit it out of the park with me, or perhaps you, but with Pegula and Whaley, he hit a grand slam.
It was thought that Frank Reich was the leading candidate for that job, but Rex blew them away, and that was it.
I have a lot of friends in Western New York. Actually, Jets Confidential Magazine has our office in Rochester, and we print in Buffalo.
I love the people up there.
Forget the Super Bowl, when was the last time they made the playoffs?
The fans up there have to hope they weren’t sold a bill of goods, where the cult of personality landed a charismatic coach their job, following a coach who many found dull.
But I guess from the standpoint of Jets fans, they don’t care about potential problems up in Buffalo.
January 15, 2015
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