Jets coach Rex Ryan has been mostly subdued while speaking to the media this offseason, but the old Rex showed up a little last night.
Ryan sounds as if he’s getting tired of hearing how bad the Jets will be this season. Answering a question about his confidence in quarterback Mark Sanchez, Ryan reminded everyone of his early success as Jets coach.
“We’ve won a lot of games with Mark Sanchez at quarterback,” Ryan said. “In fact, I think our football team since I’ve been here as the head coach has actually won more playoff games than the New England Patriots. I’m just throwing that out there. It seems like that gets lost.”
Ryan did acknowledge his team, which has lost 13 of its past 19 games, must get better.
“This football team needs to improve. That improvement has to start with me. I believe it’s going to happen,” Ryan said.
The 2013 Jets will look vastly different from the team that finished last year, something Ryan said he is excited about.
“This team will be ready,” he said. “I think as a teacher, first off, you get excited when you have some new guys, whether they’re rookies or free agents. As a teacher, it gets you really going. The only way they can get out there is that you do a great job of communicating your systems and things like that. That’s always exciting.”
General manager John Idzik felt encouraged after his first draft.
“We feel like we’ve really improved our team, specifically over these last three days, but as you go back toward free agency that we’ve gotten better,” Idzik said.