Transcript of Jets head coach Rex Ryan's Monday afternoon news conference:
The main thing I think today is I'd like to encourage everyone, not you guys [media] in particular, but all the readers to go to JoinTheJets.com. There, you'll see a tremendous acting job by myself. We need the right fan to lead us out of the tunnel when we play the Bills. It's a fun little thing that we did and I'd encourage all our fans to go in there and you'll see that great acting job that I did.
After watching the tape, it was tough sledding at times, there's no doubt. Not a whole lot of surprises. I guess there were a couple of surprises in the fact that Kris Jenkins had a good game, but wow, he definitely had a dominant game. We gave a game ball to him. He had four tackles for loss and was just a difference maker inside. I guess everybody around here, the fans and everybody in the NFL know the kind of player he is, but wow. When you see it up close, I'm glad he's on our side and he did a tremendous job for us.
I thought Shaun Ellis played well. We gave Kris Jenkins a game ball. We gave Eric Smith a game ball, just for his overall play, special teams and defense, and David Harris got one, again. On offense, the game ball went to J-Co [Jerricho Cotchery] and I thought D'Brickashaw [Ferguson] had a great game also. Going against an outstanding opponent, I thought he did a tremendous job. On special teams, [Jason] Trusnik gets another game ball and Larry Izzo. Izzo had a big game for us. That's a bunch of them, but I'm not paying for them, so that's good. But they're all deserving, every one of those guys are deserving. I thought it was a great team effort. We talked about it last night.
Really, the difference in that game, I think there are a lot of positives on both sides, but the main thing was our special teams. The biggest difference was our special teams. The field position we got, punting the football and our punt return was substantial, and then our kick coverage was outstanding, let alone the two takeaways we got on those teams. I thought Mike Westhoff and company did a great job preparing our guys. Mike said it in the special teams meeting the night before, he thought we could get a turnover. I'm not going to hold him responsible because we got two, but he's got to do a better job of calculating that, I think. But really, a great job, a credit to him and his troops and he did an outstanding job.
And really it's fun to watch. I mean, I'm watching Drew Coleman, and I'm like that [Usain] Bolt's a fast guy, but wow, the way Drew covers kicks, we'll put him up there because I have a funny feeling Bolt may slow down if he's covering a kick. But Drew he was flying down there. Really, all those guys. It's fun to watch our guys cover the kick. I'm glad we went to Jay [Feely] and made sure that we let him kick to where he wanted to one time. That was when he kicked it out of bounds. He's a great kicker, but I was like, 'Are you kidding me Jay? You've got to be kidding me here.' But he is a great kicker and it's just one of those things that happened. We'll try to fix that.
Sanchez does a great job avoiding guys in the pocket. He's got to protect the football, keep it on his front shoulder. Little things like that still to improve. When you're running a football down in a crowded spot, let's try to keep two hands on it. Other than that, tremendous effort on his part. Thought he competed well and again was poised. Had a couple of footballs fly out of his hands for whatever reason, so maybe we'll dunk the balls before practice, just anything that we can come up with to have him throw a wet football more.
I think our team is right where we want it to be, obviously. Everybody wishes they were 3-0 right now, but we played against three good opponents, and I think everybody in the League now realizes that the Jets are real. We're for real. We're a good football team, an outstanding football team. We've got to go against the number one rated offense in the entire league. Wish we were playing them at our place, but we're playing them on the road where they're really tough. The noise has got to be something we're going to have to deal with offensively. We know it's going to be a great challenge, but I think our guys will be up to the challenge. We know certainly it's not going to be easy.
On Mark Sanchez's touchdown run…
We've got to be smart there. When you're going for that goal line, it's tough to take the competitor out of that situation. He does need to realize that he's got to take care of his body through the long haul, and he's got to take care of the football as well, so those are things that he's going to have to learn. We've got great backs. We don't need him to run all the time. The way he is, it's going to be hard to get him to understand that completely, to buy into that completely, but he really needs to. You can look at what happened to Chad Pennington out for the season, and I think [Marc] Bulger is hurt. We don't need that to happen.
On if any of the coaches spoke with Sanchez this morning about that touchdown run…
Oh, yeah. I think everybody's talked to him, including his teammates.
On the running game…
Well, I tell you, I thought we had it going, and then boom, here comes a penalty. 24 yard run and there's a holding call. It's one of those things that we knew it was going to be tough sledding. That team came into the game ranked number one at stopping the run. You've got to give them credit. They did a good job. They were mixing in some run stunts and blitzes. Some weeks you're going to have that. You keep pounding it in there and eventually you'll pop it. And we did, unfortunately we got a couple of penalties there that really hurt us. That's going to be our MO and I think you win in this league by being able to stop the run when you want to and being able to run the football. Those things haven't changed.
On how important it is to try and keep Drew Brees on the sideline this week…
As good as we are on defense, it's better when we're on the sideline. I'll sign up for that right now. Keep him over there, as much as possible.
On if there is any plan to switch up the running backs to improve the running game or if the offensive line needs to improve…
I don't know if it's just the offensive line either. I think you give credit to the opponent you're up against, but there's some guys who are making plays. It's not always easy. It's not always pretty, but I think we still believe. The thing I'm proud of is we're sixth in the league in rushing attempts. It has nothing to do with the attempts. I think we [have] outstanding backs. Shonn Greene — a little disappointing we never got him any carries this week, but there's nothing promised to him. I'd like to give him a couple of shots because I think he has a lot of ability. We'll see. We have two Pro Bowl running backs in front of him already, so it's probably not an ideal situation for Shonn to come into, but we know the kind of player he is. Hopefully, we can get him some touches.
On the challenges Brees and New Orleans' running backs pose to the defense…
That's probably enough right there. It's not just one back. They have three. I don't know if the [Mike] Bell kid is playing but he did a good job. And obviously with [Pierre] Thomas, Reggie Bush, they're loaded there at running back. The thing about this kid, and we've played him before, you run a traditional coverage against this guy he'll carve you up. I think Buffalo had some nice wind out there that kind of helped them a little bit, not taking anything away from them, but I'd like to play Brees in Buffalo right now to be honest. If they could move the game to Buffalo, I'd take it. He's going to have ideal conditions, but I have a lot of confidence in the guys we have on defense. It's going to be a great challenge. You've got to mix things up on them, mix pressures, mix coverages, put some traps out there. He's a crafty guy. We're going to have our work cut out for him, but this is not going to be a traditional defense, and he knows that also.
On if he enjoys going up against an offense like New Orleans…
No, not really. I'd rather go up against the last place offense.
On the matchup with the Saints…
I always think I'm the best in calling a game on defense, so there is that chess match. When I was a coordinator, I used to love these opportunities. Now when you step back and you're the head man, you're just like, oh. I don't know, our schedule maker wasn't real happy when they put our schedule together, I don't think. Each week you only focus one at a time but it's like, man, what are you saying now? We had to play at Houston. They've got a potent offense. You've got New England and Tennessee back to back. Oh, now you've got the Saints. I don't know who we're playing next, maybe a Pro Bowl team after that. We're focused on the Saints only at New Orleans. I think we'll get through this game. It's going to be a great challenge to us. It's who is in front of us. I know our guys will be prepared and we'll go down there and give them everything we have and we'll see if that's good enough.
On if this is an intriguing matchup for the fans…
I would want to watch it. Both teams are 3-0 for a reason. I would definitely want to watch that game.
On Lito Sheppard and Donald Strickland's injuries…
Those two are way better this week than they were last week at this time. I was hoping that we could get one of them, at least, to play in this past game, but that never happened. We'll see how it goes. It's too early to tell if they'll be ready. Our guys do a great job with [John] Melody and Sal [Alosi] at getting our guys back. The guys are working hard. I know one thing, as soon as we declared them out, they had to stay here for four different treatment times. They were begging to come to the game. We were like, 'Nah, you've got to stay back and do treatment.' Hopefully this is enough time for them to get back. We certainly could use either one of them or both of them in this game. We know they've got an outstanding passing game, as well as a great running attack. I wish we had everybody on deck. We'll see if that's the case or not.
On if they might sign another corner,,,,
Yeah, there's a chance. I'm not sure how big a chance. We'll see. I think I'm encouraged by the way our doctors said both Strickland and Lito. They were both here with Sal this morning. Hopefully, we don't feel we need to do that. But again, I'm not sure. We just had steps ready just in case we need to add a guy. We think it's important to add depth in the secondary obviously this week going against this kind of opponent.
On Sean Payton…
We thought he was going to get a head coaching job a little before he did, and I think he was interested in me being a coordinator for them at one time. It just never worked out that way. Obviously, he's a great judge of talent. He is an outstanding coach, and obviously his thumbprint's all over that offense, in particular. I have a lot of respect for Sean.
On if they used Eric Smith in special packages in the game vs. Tennessee…
We did. The thing with Smitty is he's so valuable to us on defense. We put him everywhere. He can play linebacker, which he did in the game at times. We covered Alge Crumpler the big tight end out there, that's like saying I'm a big coach, the biggest tight end in the league now. Then we put him on the running back. We put him underneath whiteouts in coverage, put him in zone, put him on top playing safeties, and used him as a blitzer. So many things you can do with him. The guy's amazing how smart he is. He really is. He's probably not smart enough not to be playing football, so for whatever reason he wants to do that. But trust me, this guy can do anything he wants in life after football. He's a sharp guy. I'm glad he's playing for us.
On if he knew right away that Eric Smith would fit in with the team…
No. I did not. I think when he first got here, the first minicamp, I had my doubts and concerns about Eric. I never knew, obviously you can't tell his kind of aptitude he's going to have initially. Now that I look back, I can understand. I think we had just thrown him is as just a well, let's see what he does type. Had no idea the kind of player he was. I was down on him after that first minicamp. I would have been more than happy to have traded him, just to be honest with you. Now you're around him, and I'm like, "Whoa, this guy is so valuable to our football team." I had no idea.
He and Trusnik are playing as well on special teams as anybody in this league. I don't think it's even a doubt. We've got some guys, but those two in particular are some outstanding guys that we have that do some roles for us on defense. Eric Smith has been really valuable for us. Coming out of the minicamps after that first one, the initial minicamp, I'm no dummy, I'll admit, he had the best mini camps after that point of anybody on the team. Won some awards for us. Just shows you the kind of guy he is. We brought in Jim Leonard to be a starter, and so I can understand him being down in the dumps, but to his credit, after the first minicamp, I think he decided that he was going to show us the kind of player he was. I'm glad he did, because all of us have a great deal of respect for the job that Eric can do. We put him in so many different roles. He knows the defense. He has learned the defense. It's easy to plug him anywhere. He's like a starter. He starts in a lot of packages for us, but he's really like a starter for our defense.
On if he told Smith after the first minicamp that he might not have a future with the team…
No.
On if he talked to Smith about his doubts…
No. I just think he knew. Guys know. I think he realized. I think he was down in the dumps a little bit, but he certainly picked it up. It didn't take long after that. When we were in our second minicamp, it was when I realized, 'oh, shoot, there's a lot more to this guy than I thought.' He's instinctive. He's smart. He's tough and he's flexible. So you can do all kind of things. I really never knew the kind of special team player he was until we started. This is what Westhoff has been telling me, you understand and you listen, but I have eyes as well. When I see things, it's like wow, this is what that guy was talking about.
On David Clowney being inactive this week…
I put David down this week. That was my decision, nobody else's. I wanted to see how David would respond. David had two options: He could have come out and been upset and pouted — or I think I had a different term I used with David — or he could come out and be a Jet and work his tail off and show me that he wants to do it our way. He did exactly that. He was phenomenal this week in preparation. In fact, I'll give him probably the scout team player of the week. He humbled himself. He's got no business not being up. He's too talented, too athletic, too fast, not to be a guy that we can count on down after down.
I think in practice, we move him all over the place. Being a backup receiver, you are asked to learn all kinds of spots. It's not like you're just a backed up X receiver. You've got to know the slot. You've got to know the Z. You've got to know all of them. That's going to be preparation. I was encouraged and excited about what I thought was progress last week. He really took the challenge. He made his team better. He made his teammates better this week by challenging them.
On if he was upset with Clowney…
I was upset with him. There is nobody else in the organization. For a couple of reasons, one of them is that, you'll hear things if a guy is unhappy or whatever. I'm not a big Twitter guy, but you hear different things. To me it's about our team and understanding it's about our team: No individual is bigger than the team. Here you've got guys with unbelievable contract issues that have put everything aside for the betterment of the football team. Eric Smith we talked about. A guy that's been a starter in this league, asked to put that behind him, be the best special team player you can be, be the best defensive player you can be in totally a different role. Yet no questions, straight ahead and that's it.
If I feel a guy is not putting the team first, then I'll make that decision to put the guy down. It could be a misunderstanding with David and I. Nobody is a bigger fan of David Clowney than I am. Yet if I sense that with anybody, then that will be the case. It's not head games or anything else, it's just the way I feel. I could be wrong on that, but he responded the way I wanted him to respond. He gave us phenomenal effort.
On if Clowney knew early in the week that he would be inactive…
I brought David in. It was nobody else's decision. It was my decision. It's just my opinion. It wasn't Schotty's [Brian Schottenheimer]. It wasn't Henry's [Ellard]. It was mine. I let them know, "Guys, I'm going to sit David down this week so you don't have him."
