FIRE AWAY!
Rex says Woody is right to be angry and should do what’s best for Jets
The day after Woody Johnson (inset) hints to News that changes are coming to Jets, Rex Ryan can only agree with the frustrated owner.
ONE DAY after a “frustrated” Woody Johnson told the Daily News that changes were coming to the Jets, embattled coach Rex Ryan, normally known for his bold, over-the-top statements, could only agree with his owner.
“Obviously the man’s the owner of the team,” Ryan said Thursday, “he’s got the right to do anything he wants. And be justified in anything he chooses.”
Judgment day is certainly coming at One Jets Drive, , and it’s as if Ryan was saying to Johnson: Fire away, Woody, fire away!
Johnson is upset, understandably, and i n speaking exclusively to the Daily News on Wednesday he didn’t offer specifics about what could be coming down the road with the Jets, but he was candid about his feelings on the state of the team and their 2-11 record.
Johnson said he was “frustrated” by the season and was going to have to figure out a way to “right the ship.”
Big changes are likely to happen Dec. 29, the day after the regular season ends and better known as Black Monday around the league.
Not only is Ryan a virtual goner, but general manager John Idzik could be shown the door as well, after just two years on the job.
“It’s safe to say you got to do things differently that you did to get you to this point,” Johnson told The News. “The thing about football is that after every season, everybody is up for grabs. You take a look at everything.”
Sheldon Richardson, the de facto team spokesperson, understood where the team’s owner was coming from considering how poorly everything has gone this year.
“Let’s be real: he’s invested into this team a lot of money. So he wants his investments to come back 10-fold and you can’t blame a man for that,” Richardson said. “He has every right to be mad.”
It would be hard to imagine that this organization won’t look very different in a few months, and Johnson’s comments only reinforced that belief. While it’s espec cially likely that this is Ryan’s final year in green and white, the coach wouldn’t say whether he thought the owner’s words pertained to him.
“For me to dwell on my future or anything past Miami is not a good thing,” the coach said. “I’m just looking at this game, what I can do right now and I think that’s the most important thing.” Ryan is pretending to be blissfully ignorant but he has to know his time is up. Johnson had high hopes after the team’s 8-8 record from a year before, and Ryan is now on his fourth straight year of missing the playoffs. Considering the team’s woeful underperformance and Johnson’s claim that “patience” isn’t even in his vernacular, Ryan should be a free agent by the end of the month.
The coach said he wasn’t surprised that Johnson felt the way he did. How could he be?
“I feel the same way he does,” Ryan said.