MIAMI — He stormed into town and into the hearts of long-suffering Jets fans with hurricane force, a howling gale of bluster and bravado and braggadocio, raining swagger and guarantees on the NFL, and now…
Will Rex Ryan be gone with the wind?
Say it ain’t so.
Say it ain’t so that the best man for the job, the best coach for this young Jets team that doesn’t want any new coach, will spend his final hours Sunday as Dead Coach Walking, twisting in the wind until they hang him out to dry.
Say it is so the reports circulating that now it looks promising for Ryan to return are accurate.
One last plea:
Spare him.
Stay of Rexecution.
On one side of the line of scrimmage inside Sun Life Stadium you will see a team fighting for a wild-card playoff berth.
On the other side of the line of scrimmage, you will see a team fighting one last time for its coach, to keep its coach if there is even the faintest hope that 8-8 will matter, to back its coach’s pronouncement for general manager John Idzik and owner Woody Johnson to hear loud and clear this is a team on the climb in case they believe otherwise, or have decided it is time for a new pilot and a new direction.
Win or lose, after Ryan walks across the field to shake hands with Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, as he stands in the visiting locker room surrounded by players he loves and players who love him, no one will be surprised if he breaks down and becomes Rex Cryin’. If the Jets win, no one will be surprised if he winds up with the game ball.
His players, of course, do not have a vote on any possible Rexerendum. Austin Howard, one of the most insightful Jets, was asked if he thinks this last game can have any bearing on Ryan’s future.
“I don’t know how they’ve gone into thinking about the future already,” Howard said. “What I hope is that the people who make those decisions see the progress we have made this year. … They see what we’re building here … and they see our relationship with Rex. Obviously as players, we’re going to respect those people making decisions with whatever decision that is made.
“I know for a fact we’re all proud to be one of Rex’s players.”
Saying good-bye and good luck to Ryan and thanks for the memories would have been easier a year ago when Mike Tannenbaum was fired, before Johnson enlisted a search firm to recommend Idzik, before Idzik traded Darrelle Revis and began starting over, supposedly shoulder to shoulder with Ryan every step of the way.
It would have been easier before Ryan overachieved with a rookie quarterback subject to torturous growing pains that cost any shot at the playoffs and a most unsupportive supporting cast, mostly assembled by the rookie general manager.
It would be easier for many Jets fans to swallow if they could be certain the young Vince Lombardi, or the young Bill Walsh — or hell, the young Rex Ryan — would be walking through that door.
If Idzik thinks he has found that coach, more power to him. Good luck.
Lovie Smith finished 10-6 when Bears general manager Phil Emery, who had inherited him in 2012, made the unpopular decision to replace him with his own man, Marc Trestman, whose team is playing for a division title against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. So the jury is very much out on that one.
Emery sought a creative mind who could get the best out of Jay Cutler, and if Idzik has decided that Ryan’s Achilles heel is not unlike Smith’s, if he isn’t sold on Marty Mornhinweg and David Lee to develop Geno Smith or anyone else who comes to play quarterback, then he will push to make the change and hope there is nothing or no one tugging on the owner’s heart strings.
It would be a borderline disingenuous act in this regard: When Idzik was hired, he went on the radio and told the host that the past — neither the back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances nor the 14-18 record of the following two seasons — was the past, that Ryan would be judged from that moment forward.
If Ryan is fired, it means only making the playoffs could have saved him.
Making the playoffs with a team built to fail.
Now, these are the Jets, where Walt Michaels could be fired following the Mud Bowl defeat. Where Leon Hess could fire a kid coach like Pete Carroll to hire Rich Kotite. Where Bill Belichick could quit as HC of the NYJ after one day on the job. Where Johnson could change his mind five weeks later about a contract extension for Eric Mangini and fire him.
Is it at all possible Johnson attempted to subtly nudge Idzik and save Ryan again when he went on radio recently and indicated he did not anticipate an eventful offseason?
Will Johnson rubber stamp any and all recommendations from his top lieutenant? Is a man who relished shaking hands with tailgaters in the parking lots suddenly willing to turn a deaf ear to the growing chorus of fans and media who have rallied to Ryan’s defense? Not to mention the universal support of his players?
Is Idzik the Rexterminator? Will “I’ll be back!” never again be heard from the mouth that no longer roars?
No one is saying Ryan is the perfect coach. Far from it. But he is the perfect coach for this team at this crossroads time.
The wait to learn his fate on Monday must seem like an eternity to Ryan. Yet the flight back home with his players and coaches probably will go too quickly for him as well. So have the five years. No more guarantees from Rex Ryan. Or for him.