Coach Rex Ryan casts a rather large shadow — literally and figuratively.
That shadow could be a potential detriment to the career advancement of Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine.
Because the Jets’ identity is so heavily centered around Ryan and his defensive genius, Pettine could be perceived as a figurehead with a title.
Ryan, however, is the first person to scoff at that notion.
“I’ve got to keep him down for a couple years, because I don’t want to lose Mike,” Ryan said jokingly. “Truthfully, he’s a guy who was a must-hire for me. He was my right-hand man in Baltimore.”
Ryan also said defensive backs coach Dennis Thurman as another “must-hire” when he took the Jets head-coaching job. He called Thurman Pettine’s “sidekick.”
“Wherever we went, if I was going to get an opportunity to be a head coach or if Dennis was or Mike was we were going to take each other,” Ryan said. “We have a pretty good team. We knew we would have success wherever we went.
“It’s kind of like clockwork, the communication with Mike up top [in the press box coaches booth] and Dennis down [on the field] on game day.”
Pettine is Ryan’s eye-in-the-sky on game days, seeing the game from a vantage point Ryan cannot see from the sideline and communicating the things he sees to him over the headsets.
That communication will be critical in Sunday’s AFC Championship game against the Colts, who own the league’s most precision and explosive offense led by Peyton Manning, the NFL’s smartest quarterback.
Pettine said he knows how important the “cat and mouse” game between the Jets defense and Manning is to the outcome.
“It’s a huge part of the game,” he said. “If [Manning] knows what you’re in you’re in a lot of trouble. It’s critical for us to be able to disguise what we’re doing and to mix up what we’re going.
“It’s like poker,” Pettine added. “Is there a tell? What’s the tell? On every play, there’s nobody better in league at finding them [than Manning]. The pre-snap movement for us is critical to make sure he doesn’t know what [defense] we’re in.
“You can’t be static against a quarterback like Peyton, you can’t be an iron deer on the lawn. The more fluid we can be pre-snap the more that’s going to be to our favor.”
These intricate disguised looks are things that Ryan, Pettine and Thurman collaborate on. Though Ryan makes the defensive calls, he leans on his assistants.
“During the game he gets a lot of input from me whether he wants it or not,” Pettine said. “It’s worked pretty well for us to this point. The three of us have always been tight. ‘D.T.’ and I got hired almost the same day. I think we sat in the same human resources orientation meeting in Baltimore.
“Both of us were drawn to Rex. We share a lot of the same philosophies and are very much on the same page. It’s gotten to a point of mind reading.”
Pettine, who’s more about what he’s doing now, said he would love to be an NFL head coach at some point.
“I’ve always been of mindset of: Don’t look for a better job, do a better job,” he said. “I’ve seen it enough in this business where guys go out of their way and start to think about the next [job] and that’s never been my mindset. I’m focused now on winning a ring. That’s been our goal since day one. There’s plenty of time in the offseason to look beyond that.
“Down the road, is [head coaching an aspiration]? Absolutely, but those opportunities will find you.”
The question is, will anyone find Pettine behind that large shadow Ryan casts?
“My dad, who I coached for, gave me some great advice — especially when I was playing quarterback for him (in high school): ‘Don’t worry about things you have no control over.’ That certainly falls into that category,” Pettine said.