Sanchez and Revis captains next year

Didnt see this mentioned anywhere else, but thought it was worth pointing out......something new from Rex this coming year. I like it, especially for Sanchez


Jets coach Rex Ryan is known for stirring the pot when it comes to his brash statements. Whether he's predicting that his team will soon be the league's best or calling out an opposing player by name, Ryan has become as skilled as any NFL coach at grabbing headlines and demanding instant attention.

But on Monday, Ryan spoke about having a longer-lasting impact, saying that a decade from now he wants the Jets to stand alone as the league's dominant franchise, and he wants to be considered one of the game's great coaches.

View Full Image

Dustin Drankoski / The Wall Street Journal

Jets coach Rex Ryan on Monday with copies of his autobiography, 'Play Like You Mean It.'
Saying he wants to go well beyond the average shelf life of an NFL coach, Ryan told The Wall Street Journal he wanted to spend at least 10 years with the Jets, which would make him the franchise's second-longest tenured head man, behind only Weeb Ewbank.

"I don't wanna be just average. I don't wanna be just another guy happy with collecting a paycheck," he said, adding that he'd love to develop a coaching tree. "I wanna be a guy that does win, that does win a Super Bowl. I wanna be great."

Later in the interview, when asked whether he sought to make the Jets the more popular of the two city teams, Ryan addressed the topic again. "I don't want to be compared to the Giants. I want to be the best team in the National Football League over a 10-year period," he said.

"Nothing personal to the Giants, but I'm trying to be the best team in the National Football League."

Ryan's forward-looking comments came one day before his autobiography, "Play Like You Mean It," went on sale Tuesday.

While Ryan said he still thinks about how narrowly his team missed a shot at playing in last season's Super Bowl, the third-year head coach—known for his soundbites and audacity—reiterated his belief that his team would bring home a Super Bowl title this upcoming season.

In the last two seasons, Ryan has made plenty of headlines for any number of reasons. At his introductory press conference in 2009, he raised eyebrows when he said he expected the team to meet President Barack Obama within a few years. (Every year, the Super Bowl champions are invited to the White House to meet the president.)

"I never said we were gonna meet him that year. But his term's not over," Ryan said.

During that press conference, he also asserted that the team would have a dominant defense and running attack.

"We led the league in defense and rushing that year, so those things were accurate," he said. "Then, in the second year, I said we were soon-to-be champs, but didn't put a year on it. This year, I'm putting a year on it."

To back up his prediction, he pointed to the fact that the Jets were the only team to make it to the conference championship game each of the last two years.

"One of the reasons I [made the prediction] this year is that I want our players to think that it's a certainty. So they can prepare like it's a certainty. What would you give to actually have that? We've been close, but how do we prepare and how do we go about our business to get [to the Super Bowl]?"

He envisions quarterback Mark Sanchez as being essential to the effort to bring a title to New York. Ryan said he'd eschew his normal practice of not picking season-long captains this season by bestowing the title on Sanchez and star cornerback Darrelle Revis.

"I'm not a big believer in putting the "C's" on jerseys and all that, but I'm gonna put them on two guys this year," he said, adding that he saw it as a way of challenging Sanchez. "I want people to understand that these are our two guys."

Specifically, Ryan said the team needs to improve in the red zone and that Sanchez has to better protect the football.

The coach also spoke about his willingness to work with players who have troubled pasts, including talented receivers Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes, saying "people do change."

He said he couldn't speak about the prospect of re-signing those players—both of whom are free agents—because of the league-wide lockout.

He said the labor dispute left the organization in the "backward" situation of having to draft players without knowing which of its free agents it would be able to re-sign. Because of that, Ryan said the team simply picked what it saw as the best available players.

The coach sounded eager for the season to begin, saying he was looking forward to being able to represent the city in the season-opener—a nationally televised home game against the Dallas Cowboys on September 11.

"The fact that we're playing at home on 9/11, I know what it means to people in this area, and all over the country, really."

He said the game against the Giants, scheduled for Christmas Eve, would also have added importance. Before the interview ended, he spoke one more time of his desire to take the Jets to new heights in the coming years. And, intended or not, he took a shot at the Giants in the process.

"Are we off to a good start in my 10-year-plan? I'd say so, because the Giants haven't made the playoffs," he said.

"I'm not taking anything away from the Giants because they should be proud of their history.…My statement was about my 10 years here. We'll see how it all stacks up at the end of the day."

 

I thought the same thing. Of course, the only two current Jets I have authentic jerseys of are Revis and Sanchez. I am going to sew a bootleg C on both of them to update them.