Rex And Jets Deny That He Told His Players He Was Going To Be Fired

TheJetsBlog - Leading up to Sunday’s win over the Browns, Fox’s Jay Glazer reported that the team’s head coach told his players Saturday night that the “word on the street” is he was going to be fired. After speaking with a number of players after the game, Metro New York’s Kristian Dyer couldn’t find a player to confirm Glazer’s report.

It wasn’t about their head coach, say the players in the locker room who heard — and felt — their head coach’s words Saturday night. Fox Sports reporter Jay Glazer reported prior to the Jets’ 24-13 win over the Browns on Sunday that head coach Rex Ryan told his team on Saturday night that the “word on the street” is he was going to be fired. Perhaps it was a shrewd word choice, but it has led to rampant speculation Ryan is on his way out after five seasons with the Jets. But the Jets players in that meeting Saturday say there was nothing of the sort. “It wasn’t that way. [That’s] farthest from the truth,” one player told Metro on the condition of anonymity. “It wasn’t like that, not at all. He didn’t make it about him. And I didn’t hear him say once that there was a ‘word on the street’ about him going. Not at all.” Tight end Kellen Winslow, when told of the report, said “we don’t know anything about that.”

Well all signs are pointing to Rex getting the boot after next Sunday’s game against Miami. Nobody can really be sure who Jay Glazer’s source was. You can’t be sure what Rex said in there on Saturday night. But in all likelihood, yesterday was Rex’s final game at Metlife Stadium. And I think its the right move.

I don’t necessarily think its the fair move, but its the right move. To be perfectly honest, this was probably Rex’s best coaching job of his entire tenure. He far exceeded expectations. A team that most people thought was going to literally be the worst team in the league was still alive in the playoff hunt in week 15. A win in Miami and this team finishes .500 when the entire world thought they’d win no more than 3 games. As far as fans and the general public goes, I don’t think Rex has gotten enough credit for this year – potentially milking 8 wins out of a team completely devoid of offensive talent and working with perhaps the worst secondary of all time. In that sense, I think Rex has often been a victim of himself. The public perception of Rex has always been based off his off the field reputation rather than his on the field results. Like he never really got credit for the 2 AFC Championship games because he was always spouting off about the Super Bowl. The fact that Jets were again relevant never mattered because as soon as he declared NY a Jets town the Giants were winning Super Bowls and laughing in his face. This season is no different. People should be saying “Wow, Rex is working with nothing more than a front 4 and somehow had this team competitive.” Instead its just “LOL. Congrats on going 7-9, I’m surprised Rex isn’t guaranteeing another Super Bowl.” He made his own bed in that respect. In some ways I think its good – acting like a lightning rod and making sure your team is never complacent by always pushing expectations. In some ways its bad because its distracting and puts pressure on players. But ultimately I think that was Rex’s way of taking the burden on his shoulders and saying “Its all on me.”

And thats why I think he’s gotta go. Hes a great defensive coach. He’s a players coach. The guys love him. He outdid himself this year, but its too little too late. “Playoffs or bust” with this roster was a failed mission from the get-go, so the deck was stacked against him all year. But now they’ve missed the playoffs 3 years in a row. They’ve regressed every year. And more importantly its just time to cut the cord. Idzik should have had a clean slate to start with, now he should finally get his chance. Sometimes its not what’s fair, but what’s right. And starting over with a new regime is the right move. He coached his dick off and in some respects you could argue he deserves another shot. But if you take out all emotion the bottom line is this franchise has been headed in the wrong direction under Rex for too long. Time to start fresh. You’ve got 13 picks in the upcoming draft and most likely going to have about $50 million in cap space. Thats too much potential to have any potential issues to screw it up. Remove all bias, loyalties, past conflicts, past successes and media scrutiny. Let the new GM finally choose his man and rebuild this team the right way.