(Photo by Andy Marlin/Getty Images)
When the Jets began their search for a new Head Coach following a disappointing 9-7 season, they were looking for the complete antithesis of Eric Mangini. Mangini’s taciturn demeanor around the team and with the New York press was becoming too much to bear for owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum.
They needed to make a change. They wanted someone who could motivate players, could handle the pressure and demands of the New York market, and someone who's knowledge of the X's and O's of football would be invaluable to the overall success of the franchise.
After rejections and constant miscommunication with the likes of Bill Cowher and Mike Shanahan, the Jets turned their attention to Ravens Defensive Coordinator Rex Ryan. Ryan had the qualities that Johnson and Tannenbaum were looking for: He was charismatic in how he handled the media with a great sense of humility and good humor.
He was confident when he stated that he would make the Jets into a Super Bowl contender within four years; he came from a great football family, his father, Buddy Ryan, was the former Defensive Coordinator of the Super Bowl Bears in 1985; and he was himself a terrific coordinator in his own right in Baltimore.
Ryan furnishes the biggest coaching factor to the Jets success for now and into the near future. Throughout his nine year tenure with the Baltimore Ravens, Ryan helped fashion one of the most dominating defenses in the NFL, teaching the 46 Defense that he learned from his father to a group of talented and superior players.
When he moved up from defensive line coach to defensive coordinator in 2005, Ryan kept things simple for the Ravens defense, barely changing the playbook and, in fact, finding a way through the 46 Defense to make the Ravens even better. The defense ranked in the top ten in all of Ryan's seasons as D-Coordinator, placing as high as first in 2006 and second in 2008.
However, the year that highlighted Ryan’s coaching abilities is the 2007 season, when the Ravens were missing key pieces due to injury, such as Ray Lewis, the Ravens still ranked sixth in total defense and were second against the run allowing only 79 yards per game.
As Defensive Coordinator for the Ravens, Ryan was responsible for managing an entire defensive unit from play calls to player substitutions to constant communication with his assistant defensive coaches. Many have credited Ryan for developing players like Terrell Suggs and Bart Scott from scrap heap bench players into perennial Pro Bowlers in just a matter of a few years.
It is Ryan’s energy and football smarts that was most attractive to Jets ownership; that is what motivated them to sign him to be their head coach. Expect the Jets to play with reckless abandon on the defensive side of the football. Ryan loves using the 46 Defense, which is a series of multiple shifts and blitz packages used to confuse opposing offenses. Its main goal is to get into the face of the opposing quarterback.
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