Rex Ryan wants Santonio Holmes to know his role.
The Jets coach took a slight shot at his star wide receiver Thursday, criticizing Holmes for negative comments he has made about the team’s prospective two-quarterback system, according to ESPN.com.
“I brought Santonio in here to be a receiver, not to be the offensive coordinator,” Ryan told the website. “And that’s the way it is. I love Santonio, but if I wanted to hire him as our offensive coordinator, we would’ve.”
Last week, in an interview with the NFL Network, Holmes said he had his doubts that the two-quarterback system would work for the Jets. The team acquired Tim Tebow from the Broncos this offseason to be their Wildcat quarterback, while planning to keep Mark as the starter.
“You have to allow one quarterback to get into the rhythm of a game and it starts from the preparation in practice,” Holmes told the NFL Network. “(It’s) knowing the first couple of plays that he’s going to take these reps, it’s getting the feel for coming onto the field with the crowd awaiting you, it’s making the mistakes early in the game to finishing the games at the end. You don’t just change a guy out just because he has a few mistakes early into a game.”
New Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano told ESPN that he takes no issue with what Holmes said.
“First of all, every player is entitled to their own opinion,” Sparano said. “Every person is entitled to their own opinion. I been around long enough to know that there’s a lot of definitions of two-quarterback systems, and what some of these things mean, and what they don’t mean.”