NFL

Rex back to blustering: ‘Watch out for the Jets’

ORLANDO, Fla. — Shades of the old Rex.

Rex Ryan didn’t promise a Super Bowl or even that the Jets would make the playoffs, but their coach sounded Tuesday morning a lot like the one who used to rile up the NFL with his bulletin-board material a few years ago.

“Watch out for the Jets, man,” Ryan told reporters during the annual AFC coaches media breakfast. “I’m just telling you: Watch out for the Jets.”

And if that wasn’t clear enough two days after owner Woody Johnson declared he has shifted into win-now mode, Ryan said the Jets — who haven’t made the playoffs since 2011 — will be a hot topic around the league again this year.

“My expectations have never changed — I want to win and I expect to win,” Ryan said. “I’ll say this: It’s time to deliver. It’s time to deliver for this community, for New York, for this entire area. We got to step up and deliver. I’m not running from it, let’s put it that way. I expect a lot out of this football team.

“Nobody’s talking about us right now, but they’re going to,” Ryan added. “And that’s fine and dandy.”

GM John Idzik didn’t sound nearly as urgent as his owner and coach while speaking to local reporters Tuesday afternoon, instead urging fans to remain calm despite Idzik’s relative inactivity in outside free agency.

“I wouldn’t mistake ‘deliberate’ for lack of activity or patience,” Idzik said. “By deliberate, we’re going to be more thought-out in what we do. We want to win now, but we want to win tomorrow, we want to win the next day. We want something sustainable. We don’t want something that’s short-lived.

“There’s a lot of action going on in free agency,” Idzik added, “but action doesn’t always translate into achievement.”

The hyping of his 8-8 team was just one of many subjects an exuberant Ryan touched on during the hour-long breakfast talk, which is held for all the coaches each year in connection with the owners meetings.

Most of the questions Ryan faced were about newly signed quarterback Michael Vick and Vick’s potential impact on young incumbent Geno Smith, and the coach didn’t disappoint with his responses.

Ryan praised Vick as a player and locker-room influence, talked up the competition with Smith for the starting job and — reminiscent of the failed Tim Tebow experiment — hinted the two quarterbacks could be on the field at the same time in some creative play packages.

Could Vick be the Jets’ Week 1 starter?

“I would say yes, we want that competition,” Ryan answered. “We’ll let it all play out. It’s going to be really interesting to watch that competition unfold. I’ve said this before — Geno Smith is going to be hard to beat out.”

Vick, who turns 34 in June and lost his starting job as an Eagle to Nick Foles last season, still has Ryan’s respect.

“He’s got a big arm and he can still run,” Ryan said of Vick. “[He’s] very dangerous.”

Vick was signed the same day the Jets released Mark Sanchez, a decision Ryan said was difficult for him personally. Ryan added the only regret he had about playing Sanchez in the fourth quarter of a preseason game last year was that Sanchez injured his shoulder, causing him to miss the season.

“That’s the worst part of the job as a coach,” Ryan said of releasing Sanchez. “You never get used to it.”

Ryan was such a fan of Sanchez he famously got a tattoo of his wife wearing Sanchez’s No. 6 jersey. Ryan said Tuesday the tattoo is still there, but that he might change the digits to No. 75 in honor of Jets great Winston Hill.

“I think that’s the idea,” he said sarcastically, clearly not happy with the topic. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

Ryan might feel a sense of urgency to win this year to keep his job, but he wasn’t in a mood to poke the rival Patriots on Tuesday with Bill Belichick sitting just a few feet away.

“I think the division goes through New England, like always,” Ryan said. “I think that will always be the case as long as Tom Brady is there and Belichick and all that. But Tom Brady, as long as he’s there, I think they’re probably the favorites.”