Rex’s Defensive Scheme and Coaching, Not Loud Mouth, Will Win Games for Jets

The Jets started 3-0, ran their mouths, then got smacked in the mouth. Then they became humble, quieted down, and went to work. You maybe heard a peep here or a peep there, but for the most part they stayed humble. Now the Jets are in the playoffs, they’re mouths are moving again, and it all starts at the top with their head coach.

Usually the head coach drops the hammer when a player runs his mouth to the media. It’s not often you see a coach doing the talking and Rex has done it since the day he was hired. What Jet fans love about Rex is that he is the anti-Mangini and moreover, the anti-Belichick. He is open, confident and probably overconfident for that matter. He likes to chirp and his players emulate his actions. He’s a fiery guy with a lot of passion for what he does.

While some Jet fans like Rex’s antics and personality because, face it, he’s your team’s head coach and you usually buy into your coaches ways, other people and fans around the NFL may see him as disrespectful and ridiculous. 

To just barely get into the playoffs by the skin of your teeth and say you should be the favorites to win the Super Bowl can be seen as disrespectful. 

When someone told Rex that the Jets’ odds of winning the Super Bowl is 50-1, worst of any playoff team, Rex responded, “I wasn’t aware of that, but to me we should be favorites, so that’s fine.” When asked to clarify in what he meant by saying the Jets should be favorites, Rex said, “I mean in the whole tournament. You know the way that I feel. I think we have the best defense. I know we do. I know we have the best rushing attack. Those are two huge factors in our favor. With a couple of exceptions on our staff, myself probably, I think we have a great coaching staff. I want this football team. I’m not going to trade our team. If I had a choice to coach any team in this tournament, I would choose this one.”

Nobody is asking Rex to choose which playoff team he would rather be the coach of and nobody would expect him to say any team other than his own, but to say the Jets should be favorites to win the Super Bowl over teams like the Colts, Chargers, Saints and Vikings is insulting to those teams. A better response would have been, “All of the other playoff teams are really good, but we feel confident we can go 60 minutes with any of them and come out on top.” That’s not who Rex is though. He goes a step further and in this case, it’s a leap. I didn’t expect Rex to say, “50-1, yea sounds about right”, but I didn’t expect him to call his team the favorites. H can show confidence in his team without saying what he did.

All in all, it really doesn’t matter what other fans think about Rex. If you believe in “bulletin board” material then you must believe Rex’s quotes are all over opponents’ locker rooms. As a member of the National Football League you would expect Rex to show a little more respect for the teams at the top of the standings like the Colts, Chargers, Saints and Vikings who have all earned first round byes. Maybe Rex really believes his team is the best of the rest, but looking over their total body of work, they aren’t on the same level as some of the other playoff teams. Their defense is right there at the top but some other parts of their teams aren’t Super Bowl caliber.

I’m a big believer in letting your work on the field do the talking. I hate all the pre-game, midweek yapping and hoopla. I like Rex because of his defensive scheme and for his coaching style on the field. His loud-mouthed, over-the-top tactics and personality don’t appeal to me. What is said when the microphones are turned on doesn’t win football games. The game-planning, scheming and scouting that is done when the cameras are off and the work that is put in on the practice and playing fields is what wins football games.