A few hours after former Jets coach Rex Ryan eviscerated the team’s historically bad defensive play on Monday, current head coach Robert Saleh responded in a more measured manner.
Speaking in his weekly appearance on ESPN Radio’s “The Michael Kay Show,” Saleh brushed the comments aside, saying he never met Ryan while adding he was not surprised by the comments.
“I’ve never met Rex. I’ve never had a conversation with Rex. I don’t even know him, except for people who know him throughout the league. Obviously, if it’s that personal for him, he knows where to find me,” Saleh said.
“I’m not surprised by him. He’s always got something to say.”
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Saleh’s brother David came to his defense on Twitter as well.
“Rex Ryan took over a good Mangini roster. Won with it the 1st 2 years and lost with his own roster every year after. The only person making comparisons is you in an effort to stay relevant. Stick to podiatry and eating cheese burgers clown!” David Saleh tweeted Monday afternoon.
Ryan went off on Saleh’s defense, which is playing some of the worst football in franchise history over the past month. His comments came less than 24 hours after the Jets (2-7) gave up 45 points and 490 yards in their latest blowout loss, this time to the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium.
Ryan eviscerated Saleh -- who was hired as a supposed defensive wiz out of San Francisco -- and his defense once again in an interview with ESPN Radio’s DiPietro and Rothenberg, telling the hosts and everyone else to not “ever compare this guy to me.”
“This is a horrendous defense,” Ryan said. “This guy is supposed to be a defensive guru. I heard everything, and I take it personal on this one. Everything I heard was about ‘well, this guy is a lot like myself but without the bad part.’ Yeah? Well, some of the bad part you need because this team doesn’t play with any damn heart. That’s the thing that’s disappointing to me. Don’t ever compare this guy to me, this Robert Saleh to me.”
The numbers coming out of Sunday’s defeat are hideous, and they follow an even uglier trend that is leading the Jets towards one of the worst defensive seasons in NFL history.
These nuggets dug up by ESPN Stats and Info paint an awful picture:
- The Jets have allowed 175 points in their past four games, the second-most allowed in a four-game span by any team since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger.
- They’re the first team to allow at least 45 points three times in a four-game span since the 1966 New York Giants.
- They have surrendered 1,890 total yards during the abysmal stretch, the worst four-game period in franchise history.
The Jets have been decimated by injuries in the secondary, with last week’s loss of safety Marcus Maye to a torn Achilles being the biggest blow.
Ryan, who coached the Jets from 2009 to 2014 and led them to two consecutive AFC Championship games in his first two seasons, isn’t buying that as an excuse.
“Now they’re going to use (the excuse) ‘well, we never had our safety.’ So what? Everybody else has a million injuries, let alone an above-average safety you’re missing,” Ryan said. “I remember playing without five corners, it never looked like this. I think we were fifth in the league that year in defense.”
(Ryan is referring to the 2014 season, where the Jets finished sixth in total defense but 14th in pass defense and 24th in scoring defense; Pro Football Focus rated the Jets’ defense seventh in the league that season).
Barring an unlikely change of fortune, the Jets defense will continue to struggle mightily through the end of the season and the Jets will finish with the worst record in their division for the fourth time in the six seasons since Ryan was fired at the end of the 2014 season.
Ryan used that to put a little more salt in Saleh’s wound.
“Here’s one thing they’re going to be familiar with: four out of five years (Saleh was there), the 49ers were dead-last in their division,” Ryan said.
(Slight correction: Saleh was there for four years, from 2017-2020, and the 49ers finished last in the NFC West twice in that time; his first and last seasons).
“He’s going to be dead-last again, so he’s used to that. To me, I’m a little pissed off when I hear this guys’ background is a lot like (mine). No it isn’t. No it isn’t.”
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.
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