Rex Ryan Fired? Could Jon Gruden Coach the New York Jets?
Rex Ryan may be fired after this season he told his team in preparation for Sunday’s week 16 game against the Cleveland Browns. Though reports are unconfirmed about his firing at this point, Jay Glazer of NFL on Fox tweeted and reported on the show that this is exactly what Ryan said to his team.
Ryan has been at the center of media attention since 2009, when the Jets hired him. He seemingly loves it all. The problem is, his Jets have not lived up to the attention in recent years. After taking the Jets to the AFC conference championship two seasons in a row, Ryan has failed to lead the Jets to the Playoffs for the third consecutive year. Combing that with the Mark Sanchez debacle, the foot fetish weirdness, and getting Tebow’d last season, the writing may be on the wall for Ryan.
It is unclear whether he really will be fired, but the speculation has been there since August. So who could replace Ryan?
Jon Gruden’s name has been thrown into the hat for NFL coaching searches recently. According to one of his former players, Rich Gannon, Gruden would love to coach again. Gannon believes it needs to be the right situation with the right owners in order for it to work.
“I don’t know when. I don’t know where, but I know this, that he had two bad experiences as a head coach with some owners that he just had a tough time with,” Gannon said. “And you know I think it’s pretty clear that he didn’t necessarily see eye to eye with Mr. Davis and I think he was really disappointed at what happened with the Glazers [In Tampa Bay]… and I think he wants to go somewhere where he’s got an owner that’s not gonna, you know, try and pick the roster and try and call the plays, and just a guy that he can just come in and work for and hire a staff and get the thing turned around.”
Some say he’s not what everyone makes him out to be as a coach. One of the major concerns is that Gruden hasn’t coached in five years. But in his two stints with the Buccaneers and Raiders, he did have success, especially in winning the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay. The real question for Gruden would be, could he handle the media circus that is New York?
Rex Ryan told his players in team meeting last night that word on street is that he’s getting fired and… http://t.co/sLNbTFS4X2
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 22, 2013
After the New York Jets defeated the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, they have one more game remaining. It will be interesting to see if Rex Ryan gets fired and who would replace him.
