EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – Did Rex Ryan finally run himself out of the Meadowlands Saturday night?
Granted, Ryan has an uninspiring quarterback battle on his hands this preseason but he made his situation about 20 times worse after he pulled a Bill Belichick on the media after the Jets’ 24-21 victory over their roommates, the Giants.
Yes, a victory. Rex Ryan made news in at the press conference… after a victory. Not a loss! A victory!
We’ve all witnessed the drama of rookie Geno Smith and incumbent Mark Sanchez struggling to separate themselves from each other throughout camp. And that competition – or lack thereof – forced Ryan’s hand in his decisions Saturday night.
Smith took the Jets into the fourth quarter trailing the Giants 15-14, while throwing three interceptions. The general thought was that Marky Mark wouldn’t even enter the game at that point and Matt Simms would replace Smith. But Ryan decided to throw The Sanchise out there with the back-ups. And we all know the cliff-hanger ending of this episode: Mark Sanchez got hurt!
Cut to the post-game press conference… The Sanchez situation begged a lot of scrutiny on Ryan’s decision-making. When asked why Sanchez was on the field with the back-ups Ryan responded, “We talked about the [quarterback] competition, and that was something that I felt was important. If it wasn’t important, then I wouldn’t have put him in there. I would not have put Mark in if it wasn’t important,” Ryan continued.
But it gets better. A reporter from one of the New York papers asked Ryan if Sanchez had any chance at winning the starting job for Week 1.
This was his response…
“Hey, I’ll make that call,” Ryan said. “I don’t have to answer a question. I’ll answer it the way I said. And from Day 1 I said we’ll make the announcement of a starting quarterback when we think it’s the appropriate time.”
Here’s the thing… That doesn’t answer the question. All the reporter wanted to know was if Sanchez had a shot or not at the spot, not if he chose his starting quarterback yet.
The reporter called Ryan out on not answering the questioned and he responded… “I can say anything I want. That’s the beauty of this country.”
After watching the press conference, I gotta say, Rex Ryan put himself in an awfully sticky situation. We all knew Ryan was on thin ice this season and in order to stay his team needed to be competitive. But let’s be real. That’s not happening. This Jets team has no weapons and no media.
The difference between Belichick and Ryan is… Belichick wins. If Belichick didn’t win, do you think he’d still be the Patriots coach? Heck no! This is a ticking time bomb for the Jets and good luck to you Jets fans. You’ll need it!
Fake Sandy Alderson tomorrow for the still-recuperating Grote2DMax.
