Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan said he knew he was going to be fired from the New York Jets in 2014, and he knew it fairly early on. In an interview with Andrea Kremer of HBO Real Sports, Ryan discussed his departure from the team. When asked whether he knew going into his final season that he was likely to be fired, he said "I was done. 100 percent, I knew I was done."
Rex Ryan says he knew ‘100 percent’ he was going to be fired in 2014
Rex Ryan said he knew the Jets would fire him in 2014 after the team did little in free agency, but also said owner Woody Johnson would have kept him if he could.
Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports
Only an excerpt of the interview is available at the moment, but there’s still plenty to get out of it. The full Interview will air on HBO on Aug. 18 at 9 p.m. ET.
When asked when he knew that he was going to be fired, Ryan suggested he knew before the season began, after witnessing what the team did in free agency.
“I knew we weren’t gonna have a good team when we didn’t do anything in free agency,” Ryan said, “I knew that.”
Ryan took the Jets to the AFC Championship twice after taking over the team, but the Jets finished the 2013 season with an 8-8 record and didn't do much in free agency to help build the team, as Ryan noted. In 2014, they finished at 4-12 and Ryan was fired, along with general manager John Idzik.
Interestingly, Idzik was hired when Ryan was already there, though general managers typically like to bring in their own head coaches. Ryan confirmed in the interview that he was never Idzik’s “guy,” but he did actually suggest that owner Woody Johnson wanted to keep Ryan in place after the season.
“Yeah, every day I’d talk to him -- we talked like brothers,” Ryan said, “I knew Woody never wanted to fire me. I could have been his coach for 20 years. That’s what Woody wanted. There’s no question Woody wanted that.”
Ryan was then asked if he could have stayed in New York this year. He said “Maybe,” but then suggested that it would have been incredibly difficult for Johnson to bring in a new general manager with said general manager also agreeing to keep Ryan on as head coach.
“There’s no chance he could have brought in another GM and kept me again,” Ryan said, “There’s no way. It wouldn’t have worked in New York. They weren’t going to allow it.”
So Ryan was fired, and was quickly hired by the Bills. The Jets wound up hiring former Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.
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