Rex Ryan sure knows how to make Jets fans feel better.
Shortly after it was reported Sunday that Mike Vrabel has agreed to become the next head coach of the Patriots — leaving the Jets without one of the first candidates to interview for their vacancy and likely one of their top choices — Ryan reacted from his chair on ESPN’s “NFL Countdown.”
“Hey, man, hopefully, I get to kick this guy’s ass twice a year. I don’t know,” said Ryan, who also interviewed last week for the Jets’ vacancy. “I’m just kidding, Vrabes. I’m just kidding, buddy.”
The other analysts laughed at Ryan’s open campaigning to be rehired by the Jets, who he coached to consecutive AFC Championship games early in a tenure that produced a 46-50 record (2009-14).
Host Mike Greenberg — a big-time Jets fan himself — jumped in to clarify that Ryan meant his Jets beating the Patriots and not that Ryan was challenging Vrabel to a fight.
“My team, yeah,” Ryan said. “Not me personally.”
Ryan is picking up where he left off by trash-talking the Patriots, even though they are no longer the big, bad, Super Bowl frontrunners nowadays.
Vrabel is taking over a team coming off of back-to-back last-place finishes in the AFC East.
Way back when, Ryan entered his first season with the Jets by saying, “I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick’s rings.”
How did he back it up? Ryan went 4-9 against the Patriots as the Jets head coach, including a signature upset road victory in the 2010 playoffs.
Vrabel’s last season as a player with the Patriots was in 2008, so he missed the Ryan-Patriots banter.
After he was fired by the Titans after last season and worked as a consultant for the Browns in 2024, Vrabel is now the seventh player to win a Super Bowl with a franchise and then return home as its head coach.
