Rex Ryan '100%' believes he'll be next Jets coach, gives blunt plan for Aaron Rodgers — USA TODAY
"Oh, 100%. Absolutely, I do," he said. "And the reason I think I'm going to get it is because I'm the best guy for it. It ain't close. The thing you have to do is, you have to connect with your football team, you have to connect with your fan base. The way they play, that's the most important thing. It's not just the Xs and Os and all that. This (
Detroit Lions offensive coordinator) Ben Johnson, I love him, I absolutely love him, but I'm a better candidate for this job than he would be."
The former Jets' head coach's appearance on ESPN New York also included his plans for handling veteran quarterback
Aaron Rodgers.
Ryan told "DiPietro & Rothenberg," "If he's back, it ain't gonna be the country club, show up whenever the hell you want to show up. That ain't gonna happen," Ryan said.
Last year, the then-40-year-old quarterback missed the Jets' mandatory minicamp to go to Egypt on vacation. Rodgers chalked up the absence to a scheduling mishap at the time, and New York fined him $100,000 for what former head coach Robert Saleh called an "unexcused absence."
"Clearly, when you have a guy that doesn't show up for mandatory minicamp – and, by the way, he's your quarterback, coming off an injury – I think that's an absolutely ridiculous message you send to the team," Ryan said.