If, as most suspect, Rex Ryan is fired at the end of this season, his legacy will include two AFC Championship Games, a substantial amount of lost weight and a signature defensive style that electrified New York when times were good.
Many will recall Ryan, who leads his Jets into Detroit today to play the Bills — a game that was moved due to heavy snow storms in Buffalo — utilizing what were, for a long time, his best assets — his cornerbacks, most notably Darrelle Revis — by often isolating them in man coverage, freeing up others to get after the quarterback or stuff the run. So in what will probably be his last season with the Jets, Ryan has not been able to stick to the formula he prefers, lacking the quality of cornerback he needs to do that.
Ryan has used more zone coverage than he has in previous seasons.
“Injuries,” defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman said when asked what has caused the adjustment. “It’s nothing more than injuries.”
It’s true, the Jets have been decimated at the cornerback position. Their supposed top cornerback, Dee Milliner, played in just three games this year before he was knocked out for the season with an Achilles injury. Third-round pick Dexter McDougle tore his ACL in training camp.
And while not an injury, Dimitri Patterson went AWOL and was released before the season began. It’s left the Jets mixing and matching to the point they only have two cornerbacks on the active 53-man roster, Darrin Walls and Kyle Wilson, who were with the team in training camp. The situation has been dire enough that Thurman, who played as a DB for nine years himself, joked this week that he’s thought about coming out of retirement.
“Cornerback’s a position that’s hard to replace,” defensive backs coach Tim McDonald said.
The truth is that injuries are only partially to blame here. The team was lacking at the position before the year began and Milliner and McDougle were unknown quantities.
That didn’t have to be the case. Even if Woody Johnson and GM John Idzik were set against a reunion with Revis, who was briefly a free agent after being cut by Tampa Bay in the offseason, other corners were available. The team didn’t sign Vontae Davis, Antonio Cromartie or Alterraun Verner and let Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie walk to the Giants after getting him in the building. What was left for Ryan was a bad situation at cornerback that would soon get worse.
Either way, in a season when Ryan likely needed to prove his worth in order to keep his job, he has been handcuffed at a critical position. Granted, a Revis doesn’t come around too often, but the cornerbacks the Jets are using are simply NFL retreads.
http://static.eplayer.performgroup.com/flash/js/swfobject.jshttp://static.eplayer.performgroup.com/flash/js/performgroup.jsaddResponsivePlayer(’13hcqa5domia01pox2ed2mru0z’, ‘CDFC1E35167909CBE0440021281A8A86’, ‘nji7805w1z2b1eik5ynbw9sy5’, ‘perf13hcqa5domia01pox2ed2mru0z-nji7805w1z2b1eik5ynbw9sy5’, ‘eplayer41’, {age:1402604427000});
“Most teams don’t find themselves in the situation that we’ve been in in the secondary with the amount of people, pieces moving,” Calvin Pace said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to simplify.
“Not to say it’s dumbed down, but it’s just kind of we’re doing things because of our personnel a little bit more and that’s playing zone.”
For awhile the Jets tried and failed to move safety Antonio Allen to cornerback. Now, in the latest sign of desperation, the team is holding weekly competitions in practice to determine the starters. Competition may be the mantra of the team under John Idzik, but no one wants it happening in Week 12. McDonald indicated that Walls and Marcus Williams were leading the pack this week.
Ryan knows no one is going to pity him for his cornerback situation.
“It’s obviously a challenge, but (for) any coach, it’s not always going to be a perfect situation for you and not having injuries or having things come up,” Ryan said.
You’ve got to find a way to give your guys an opportunity to be successful and that’s the challenge in coaching. But, anybody worth their salt I think would appreciate those type of challenges and you move forward.”
Pace said that he wouldn’t expect Ryan to get a free pass just because of the hardships at cornerback this season.
“You can’t say that (it’s unfair). I mean you could say it but it’s not like that’s going to hold any weight anywhere. He’s judged on wins and losses and that’s the bottom line,” Pace said. “I wish we could have had some continuity at certain positions. Maybe things might have been different for us.”