How Bad Teams Stay Bad, Vol. LVI.

We do discuss this fairly often

Rex Ryan interviewed with the New York Jets on Tuesday for their vacant head coach position, for which he’d previously said he was 100% sure he’d get the job. This is how you know the Jets aren’t remotely serious about getting better.

I know — we won’t spend much time on this. Other franchises really do try, and we should use our energy on them. Patriots owner Bob Kraft doesn’t want his tenure to end with a whimper; he’s all-in on getting Mike Vrabel on board to coach, and that would be a grade-A move. The Bears have the Lions’ offensive and defensive coordinators (Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, respectively) on their interview list, and that is a time-honored solid effort: cherry-picking another franchise’s emerging coaching stars.

Even Jacksonville is in the game. The Jags fired their coach while keeping their career-underperforming GM, Trent Baalke, which was baffling — but their candidate list is long and legitimate.

And then there are the Jets.

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Rex Ryan:

—Hasn’t coached in any capacity in 10 years.

—Went 46-50 with the Jets his last go-round.

—Had two winning seasons out of eight total as a head coach (Jets and Bills), and they were the first two years he coached.

—Has been blowing hard on ESPN since his last firing, rather than staying in an organization to try to get better or keep up to date.

—Was the second person/team eliminated from Season 34 of The Amazing Race in 2022, finishing in 11th place.

(We love that show.)

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I don’t expect the Jets to actually hire Rex Ryan, but you never know. They’re pretty terrible at everything.

Rex certainly likes his chances. On a radio interview Monday, he said this: "I'm the best guy for it. It ain't close. The thing you have to do is, you have to connect with your football team, you have to connect with your fan base. The way they play, that's the most important thing. It's not just the X's and O's and all that. This Ben Johnson, I love him, I absolutely love him, but I'm a better candidate for this job than he would be."

Ben Johnson has been pursued for every head-coach opening in the league over the past two seasons, but he elected to stay in Detroit because he wanted to finish the job with the Lions. If Johnson moves on during this off-season, he certainly can choose a less dysfunctional situation than the one in New York, because he’s once again on every team’s candidate list.

Rex Ryan has been interviewed by no other team for a decade. So the Jets’ interest is…inspired?

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Sure, I’m pressing on a bruise. Ryan has a longtime friendship with Jets owner Woody Johnson, so perhaps this is a courtesy interview designed to recast Rex as a person whom other franchises should consider. Dunno.

But it’s always distressing to see a monied franchise in a huge market do almost everything wrong. The Jets went after Aaron Rodgers, which was dumb because their roster wasn’t remotely matched to his remaining skill set. Their ownership has been tumultuous in recent years in part because Woody Johnson went off at one point to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom (Trump v.1). This season, they fired widely respected Robert Saleh as head coach after a 2-3 start, then went 3-9 the rest of the way amid reports that Woody’s teenage son was helping call some of the shots. (Woody says no. Aaron Rodgers doesn't sound so sure.) Robert Saleh is now turning up on multiple interview lists for head coach around the league.

By the way — that headline up there? The Roman numeral LVI is how many years it’s been since the Jets were in the Super Bowl, 56 and counting. (1969, Joe Namath at QB, Leon Hess as the owner).

But hey, let’s get Rex Ryan in here and have a great lunch chat. It’ll be cool.

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