Ian O'Connor: Rex Ryan should have gotten the boot too... - Jets Insider.com Forums

Jordy · 01-01-2013, 12:34 PM

Rex Ryan should have been fired, too, as he is no less responsible for the state of the New York Jets than is his former business partner, Mike Tannenbaum, the general manager thrown to the baying wolves by an owner who had no choice.

Woody Johnson needed a new overlord of personnel after his team fielded an offense so bereft of talent and imagination it appeared lifted from a grainy, eight-millimeter game film out of the black-and-white '30s. Too many mistakes in the draft room and the monumental one in the Tim Tebow trade left Tannenbaum on the wrong side of Johnson's desk Monday morning, when the guy doing all the roster trimming since 2006 was the one asked to turn in his playbook.

If you saw the "Hard Knocks" scenes of Tannenbaum cutting loose those poor souls trying to make his team, you might think he had this coming to him. If you recall how Tannenbaum carried out Johnson's orders and fired his BFF, Eric Mangini, despite a 9-7 record and two winning seasons in three attempts, you might think what goes around finally came around.

Fine. It's a win-or-else business, and after two consecutive trips to the AFC championship game, Tannenbaum's Jets delivered two consecutive collapses that would've put the Mets to shame.

But guess what? These are Ryan's Jets as much as they are Tannenbaum's Jets. In fact, a neutral observer could argue the gross mismanagement of the 2012 team had a little more to do with coaching than anything else.

So Ryan got better than he deserved from his boss, who released a statement saying that the consulting firm of Korn/Ferry International will help him find Tannenbaum's replacement, and that Ryan deserves to remain the head coach because "he has the passion, the talent, and the drive to successfully lead our team."

On what planet, Woody? And in what league?

Whether it's being ultra-late to discover a player's injury, or being oblivious to the fact an insubordinate star was benched by an assistant (see the Santonio and Schotty show, Miami, Week 17, 2011 season), Ryan is forever the last to know what's happening with his team. On arrival in Florham Park, N.J., four years ago, Rex said he burned to become a better head coach than his father, Buddy, architect of the defense that defined the '85 Chicago Bears.

But like his old man, Ryan was born to be a coordinator, and a great one. Just not the ultimate game-day leader of a franchise. Go ahead and name the last head coach in a major team spot that won a championship, or multiple championships, with a persona as outsized and an approach as loud and wildly inconsistent as Rex's.

The big winners -- the Bill Belichicks and Tom Coughlins and Joe Torres -- almost always have a steadiness running through the core of their programs, with tweaks applied here and there. Ryan has been all over the place the last two years, and it's no coincidence his team has followed suit. If it used to be a compliment when people said the Jets had taken on their coach's personality, it's a compliment no more.

Ryan's program is out of control, and Tannenbaum is hardly the only one to blame for that. Ryan has been a big voice in the drafting and acquiring of talent, or non-talent. Rex was neck-deep in the night moves Tannenbaum made to land Mark Sanchez on the eve of the 2009 draft, and he was right in there with the hiring of Tony Sparano, too.

Widely hailed (especially by himself) as the man everyone wants to play for, Ryan watched the Jets quit on him over the final three weeks of 2011, and again over the final three weeks of 2012. If the players truly wanted to spare their beloved coach from Tannenbaum's fate, they sure had the funniest way of showing it.

The Jets closed the season by losing to three wretched opponents, and that isn't even the half of it. Ryan has shown no ability for developing quarterbacks, even one (Sanchez) he positively had to have out of college, a singular truth that should've been enough to scare Johnson into sacking him.

Instead the owner charged an outside search firm not to find the best executive available, but the best executive available willing to keep Ryan employed.

What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down.

But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games.

In his statement Johnson said he dumped Tannenbaum on Monday morning because the Jets "are not where we want to be, and a new general manager will be critical to getting this team back on the right track."

Only Tannenbaum had winning seasons with Mangini, and winning draft picks in Darrelle Revis, Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, and David Harris before Ryan walked through the door the way a Wild West sheriff would barrel into a saloon. And though the Tebow deal was panned for the adverse impact it would have on the fragile Sanchez, Tannenbaum did hand Ryan an upgrade at a position of acknowledged weakness -- backup quarterback.

Tebow might've been a lot of things, but as a playoff-game winner in Denver with an 8-5 overall record last season, he was also a much better football player than his Ice Age predecessor, Mark Brunell. If Ryan and Sparano were better at their jobs, they would've done something with Tebow's athleticism other than bury it under an up-the-gut cloud of dust. If Ryan and Sparano were better at their jobs, Sanchez wouldn't be the severely diminished asset he is today, guaranteed a job next season only because Tannenbaum signed him to a contract extension that never should've been offered.

But if the quarterback position isn't Ryan's thing, neither is common-sense thinking. The same coach who dressed Tebow with broken ribs nearly got Sanchez maimed in a blowout victory over Jacksonville in 2011, when the quarterback took a nasty, unnecessary hit because Ryan wanted a touchdown pass thrown to the previously ignored Plaxico Burress.

All in all, the head coach's judgment has been as bad as his team's performance, as bad as Tannenbaum's hires. So even though Woody Johnson gave him a reprieve, Rex Ryan should understand this:

He didn't deserve one.

10PennyToColes87 · 01-01-2013, 12:46 PM

1000000000000% spot on. Rex should be gone.

McGinley · 01-01-2013, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10PennyToColes87

1000000000000% spot on. Rex should be gone.

Cliffnotes, Pendawg. Headache prevents me from reading that essay.

Jordy · 01-01-2013, 12:48 PM

What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down.

But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games.

The above is what many of us have been saying. It's worth repeating because it's 100% true.

Jordy · 01-01-2013, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGinley

Cliffnotes, Pendawg. Headache prevents me from reading that essay.

C'mon McGinley.

We'll wait for you. You can even move your lips while you read.

McGinley · 01-01-2013, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordy

C'mon McGinley.

We'll wait for you. You can even move your lips while you read.

I'd think of a witty comeback, but my pounding head won't allow it. You escape this time, funny man.

southparkcpa · 01-01-2013, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordy

C'mon McGinley.

We'll wait for you. You can even move your lips while you read.

A newspaper reporters opinion...............worth no more than my opinion or yours.

Jordy · 01-01-2013, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by southparkcpa

A newspaper reporters opinion...............worth no more than my opinion or yours.

Of course it's an opinion. But he brings up excellent points.

It's hard to dispute the things he says.

AlwaysGreenAlwaysWhite · 01-01-2013, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordy

What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down.

But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games.

The above is what many of us have been saying. It's worth repeating because it's 100% true.

How is it 100% true? What most of us have been saying is that no one but Woody/Neil/Jed know if he's said whether keeping Rex is a must...

You're talking about a guy who said Tebow would be here for years when he won't make it a full 365 days.

People need to stop exaggerating the situation.

fidelioion · 01-01-2013, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordy

What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down.

But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games.

The above is what many of us have been saying. It's worth repeating because it's 100% true.

We don't know what Woody told Korn/Ferry. Rex could still be fired, just because he didn't fire him yesterday doesn't mean it can't happen.

10PennyToColes87 · 01-01-2013, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGinley

Cliffnotes, Pendawg. Headache prevents me from reading that essay.

>Rex just as responsible as Tanny for **** season
>Rex meddled too much into the team's signings/hires
>Rex is oblivious as to what's going on around him
>Tanny was made scapegoat, and Rex should've been fired with him.

McGinley · 01-01-2013, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10PennyToColes87

>Rex just as responsible as Tanny for **** season
>Rex meddled too much into the team's signings/hires
>Rex is oblivious as to what's going on around him
>Tanny was made scapegoat, and Rex should've been fired with him.

Makes sense. TY, TY.

Jordy · 01-01-2013, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysGreenAlwaysWhite

How is it 100% true? What most of us have been saying is that no one but Woody/Neil/Jed know if he's said whether keeping Rex is a must...

You're talking about a guy who said Tebow would be here for years when he won't make it a full 365 days.

People need to stop exaggerating the situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fidelioion

We don't know what Woody told Korn/Ferry. Rex could still be fired, just because he didn't fire him yesterday doesn't mean it can't happen.

No, we don't. You're both right.

I suppose I'm assuming (insert Odd Couple joke here) that based on the Woody Johnson's statement that Rex Ryan will be the Jets coach next season.

I don't think it's a stretch to draw that conclusion.

Ray Ray19 · 01-01-2013, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordy

What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down.

But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games.

The above is what many of us have been saying. It's worth repeating because it's 100% true.

It's a fair position to have, but it's not the only position.

And none of us, including the hack media, can qualify exactly who should be at fault. Ryan coaches the players that are provided to him, and I'm pretty sure THAT was the biggest problem this past season, the talent on the field, not the coach coaching it.

The statement "Ryan's program is out of control" is horse****, and complete media crap. The "circus" atmosphere, mostly created by Tebow and then the media, none of that is on Ryan.

It's already been proven last year was overblown in terms of the locker room, Schotty lost his offense, Ryan deferred to Schotty with everything the offense was doing. It is debatable whether this is right or not, most defensive coaches shouldn't be involved with the offense, but I would agree, they need to have control over the entire team.

Sure, Ryan has his warts, and he needs to learn from a season like this last one, and the one before it, most of them do, but there is NO questioning the heart the team CONTINUED to play with despite the talent and mistakes being made on the field by that talent, and players that were perhaps ruined, mostly on offense, by a lacking offensive coaching staff. THAT is not on Ryan.

All I continue to read is how players will not want to stay on as Jets if Ryan is removed, Ryan very much had the locker room this past year, I don't think this can be disputed, look no further than the comments made by Revis yesterday, who is the most straight forward player there is on the team, he tells it like it is, his comments on Ryan and even wanting to remain with the team were rather telling IMO.

dustykeller · 01-01-2013, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordy

What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down.

But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games.

The above is what many of us have been saying. It's worth repeating because it's 100% true.

This post should be stickied somewhere.

Ray Ray19 · 01-01-2013, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by southparkcpa

A newspaper reporters opinion...............worth no more than my opinion or yours.

Bingo!

It's also hilarious to me how a hack journalist tries to make a case for somebody to be fired. This part of journalism disgusts me.

Ray Ray19 · 01-01-2013, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10PennyToColes87

>Rex just as responsible as Tanny for **** season
>Rex meddled too much into the team's signings/hires
>Rex is oblivious as to what's going on around him
>Tanny was made scapegoat, and Rex should've been fired with him.

How does he or any of us know how much influnce Ryan had on team's signings/hires?

Tebow and Sparano? It's already been reported Ryan didn't initiate either move, and it was clear he wasn't completely on board with the Tebow move, and BOTH moves were the biggest disasters of this team this year.

Kentucky Jet · 01-01-2013, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10PennyToColes87

>Rex just as responsible as Tanny for **** season
>Rex meddled too much into the team's signings/hires
>Rex is oblivious as to what's going on around him
>Tanny was made scapegoat, and Rex should've been fired with him.

agreed! The headcase remains! The circus is still in town and the ringleader is seen as untouchable. I am sure that the headcase will allways think that Suckchez gives him the best chance to win. Thus we are going to struggle with the circus next season. Only the Jets!

DDNYjets · 01-01-2013, 01:27 PM

Little Ian going out on a limb.

RMJK · 01-01-2013, 01:31 PM

Rex did not get Brett Farve. He had nothing to do with the Pennington years. History demanded that we win now. Rex was a breath of fresh air and took us to a few playoffs. He built us a defense that was very good by getting top FAs. Now the tradeoff is those play makers have aged and lost several steps exponentially.
We build a probowl OL but when Woody left th OL, Sanchez took a beating and has a lower back injury and shoulder problems. It took too long to get Wayne Hunter replaced. Sanchez became a clutz and skittish as a result.

Is this all on Rex ? I see the time to make some tweaks but we can't tweak properly because of players favorable contracts. Cap hell they call it.

I want Rex to stay and I want his above average D. Next year is a let's see what happens year. Maybe we keep or sign key players based on next year.

01-01-2013, 12:34 PM	#1
Jordy Keeping it real... Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Tårnby, Denmark Posts: 23,145	Ian O'Connor: Rex Ryan should have gotten the boot too... Rex Ryan should have been fired, too, as he is no less responsible for the state of the New York Jets than is his former business partner, Mike Tannenbaum, the general manager thrown to the baying wolves by an owner who had no choice. Woody Johnson needed a new overlord of personnel after his team fielded an offense so bereft of talent and imagination it appeared lifted from a grainy, eight-millimeter game film out of the black-and-white '30s. Too many mistakes in the draft room and the monumental one in the Tim Tebow trade left Tannenbaum on the wrong side of Johnson's desk Monday morning, when the guy doing all the roster trimming since 2006 was the one asked to turn in his playbook. If you saw the "Hard Knocks" scenes of Tannenbaum cutting loose those poor souls trying to make his team, you might think he had this coming to him. If you recall how Tannenbaum carried out Johnson's orders and fired his BFF, Eric Mangini, despite a 9-7 record and two winning seasons in three attempts, you might think what goes around finally came around. Fine. It's a win-or-else business, and after two consecutive trips to the AFC championship game, Tannenbaum's Jets delivered two consecutive collapses that would've put the Mets to shame. But guess what? These are Ryan's Jets as much as they are Tannenbaum's Jets. In fact, a neutral observer could argue the gross mismanagement of the 2012 team had a little more to do with coaching than anything else. So Ryan got better than he deserved from his boss, who released a statement saying that the consulting firm of Korn/Ferry International will help him find Tannenbaum's replacement, and that Ryan deserves to remain the head coach because "he has the passion, the talent, and the drive to successfully lead our team." On what planet, Woody? And in what league? Whether it's being ultra-late to discover a player's injury, or being oblivious to the fact an insubordinate star was benched by an assistant (see the Santonio and Schotty show, Miami, Week 17, 2011 season), Ryan is forever the last to know what's happening with his team. On arrival in Florham Park, N.J., four years ago, Rex said he burned to become a better head coach than his father, Buddy, architect of the defense that defined the '85 Chicago Bears. But like his old man, Ryan was born to be a coordinator, and a great one. Just not the ultimate game-day leader of a franchise. Go ahead and name the last head coach in a major team spot that won a championship, or multiple championships, with a persona as outsized and an approach as loud and wildly inconsistent as Rex's. The big winners -- the Bill Belichicks and Tom Coughlins and Joe Torres -- almost always have a steadiness running through the core of their programs, with tweaks applied here and there. Ryan has been all over the place the last two years, and it's no coincidence his team has followed suit. If it used to be a compliment when people said the Jets had taken on their coach's personality, it's a compliment no more. Ryan's program is out of control, and Tannenbaum is hardly the only one to blame for that. Ryan has been a big voice in the drafting and acquiring of talent, or non-talent. Rex was neck-deep in the night moves Tannenbaum made to land Mark Sanchez on the eve of the 2009 draft, and he was right in there with the hiring of Tony Sparano, too. Widely hailed (especially by himself) as the man everyone wants to play for, Ryan watched the Jets quit on him over the final three weeks of 2011, and again over the final three weeks of 2012. If the players truly wanted to spare their beloved coach from Tannenbaum's fate, they sure had the funniest way of showing it. The Jets closed the season by losing to three wretched opponents, and that isn't even the half of it. Ryan has shown no ability for developing quarterbacks, even one (Sanchez) he positively had to have out of college, a singular truth that should've been enough to scare Johnson into sacking him. Instead the owner charged an outside search firm not to find the best executive available, but the best executive available willing to keep Ryan employed. What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down. But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games. In his statement Johnson said he dumped Tannenbaum on Monday morning because the Jets "are not where we want to be, and a new general manager will be critical to getting this team back on the right track." Only Tannenbaum had winning seasons with Mangini, and winning draft picks in Darrelle Revis, Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, and David Harris before Ryan walked through the door the way a Wild West sheriff would barrel into a saloon. And though the Tebow deal was panned for the adverse impact it would have on the fragile Sanchez, Tannenbaum did hand Ryan an upgrade at a position of acknowledged weakness -- backup quarterback. Tebow might've been a lot of things, but as a playoff-game winner in Denver with an 8-5 overall record last season, he was also a much better football player than his Ice Age predecessor, Mark Brunell. If Ryan and Sparano were better at their jobs, they would've done something with Tebow's athleticism other than bury it under an up-the-gut cloud of dust. If Ryan and Sparano were better at their jobs, Sanchez wouldn't be the severely diminished asset he is today, guaranteed a job next season only because Tannenbaum signed him to a contract extension that never should've been offered. But if the quarterback position isn't Ryan's thing, neither is common-sense thinking. The same coach who dressed Tebow with broken ribs nearly got Sanchez maimed in a blowout victory over Jacksonville in 2011, when the quarterback took a nasty, unnecessary hit because Ryan wanted a touchdown pass thrown to the previously ignored Plaxico Burress. All in all, the head coach's judgment has been as bad as his team's performance, as bad as Tannenbaum's hires. So even though Woody Johnson gave him a reprieve, Rex Ryan should understand this: He didn't deserve one.

01-01-2013, 01:31 PM	#20
RMJK Think outside the box. Jets Insider VIP Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Warwick, New York Posts: 15,784	I don't agree Rex did not get Brett Farve. He had nothing to do with the Pennington years. History demanded that we win now. Rex was a breath of fresh air and took us to a few playoffs. He built us a defense that was very good by getting top FAs. Now the tradeoff is those play makers have aged and lost several steps exponentially. We build a probowl OL but when Woody left th OL, Sanchez took a beating and has a lower back injury and shoulder problems. It took too long to get Wayne Hunter replaced. Sanchez became a clutz and skittish as a result. Is this all on Rex ? I see the time to make some tweaks but we can't tweak properly because of players favorable contracts. Cap hell they call it. I want Rex to stay and I want his above average D. Next year is a let's see what happens year. Maybe we keep or sign key players based on next year.

01-01-2013, 12:46 PM	#2
10PennyToColes87 Hall Of Fame Join Date: May 2005 Location: SoFla Posts: 15,374	1000000000000% spot on. Rex should be gone.

01-01-2013, 12:48 PM	#4
Jordy Keeping it real... Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Tårnby, Denmark Posts: 23,145	What a way to run a business. Of course Johnson should've asked Korn/Ferry to identify a highly qualified GM, with no strings attached. And if that highly qualified GM decided he wanted to fire Ryan, or to give him another year, then that's what should've gone down. But the Jets are the Jets, meaning their lead Korn/Ferry headhunter, Jed Hughes, has already been limited in his search to executives who can live with a coach who has lost 13 of his last 19 games. The above is what many of us have been saying. It's worth repeating because it's 100% true.

01-01-2013, 01:27 PM	#19
DDNYjets Bye week buh bye Rex Hall Of Fame Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: New York Posts: 12,257	Little Ian going out on a limb.