Arizona Cardinals‘ cornerback Antonio Cromartie defended his former head coach Rex Ryan recently in light of his firing by the New York Jets.
The NFL‘s ‘Black Monday’ featured a number of head coach firings, as it always does. In this case, some high profile coaches were let go and some prominent jobs opened up.
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Perhaps no firing has garnered more attention than the inevitable firing of Rex Ryan by the Jets. While it very well might have been time for a change in New York, Ryan is still a highly regarded coach and should be in line for another gig before next season if he wants it.
One of Ryan’s former players recently took a moment to defend him and rip the Jets in the process. Shutdown cornerback Antonio Cromartie, now a member of the Arizona Cardinals, still clearly thinks highly of Ryan and was not afraid to say so.
“I don’t think they should have fired [Ryan],” Cromartie said, as quoted in the New York Post. “I think he’s a great head coach. He got guys to believe in him and understand him and know what he wants. They had a coach who had been there and had a foundation set.”
Perhaps the biggest problems for the Jets were the decisions they made at the quarterback position. Their general struggles to find effective players on offense was a problem on the personnel side of things, and paired with their bad injury luck, they never had a chance to matter in 2014.
Cromartie spoke to those issues as well. “Yes, it was a bad year for them going 4-12,” Cromartie said, “But he was going to get a lot of his guys back [next year] from injuries and would be ready to play in 2015 season.”
I’m sure the Jets really appreciate Cromartie’s help in evaluating their situation.
These quotes from Cromartie about Rex Ryan highlight an important point: the guy truly is a player’s coach. There might have been issues in terms of talent and in-game performance, issues that Ryan should be held accountable for, but there’s no question that his players like him and play hard for him.
Ryan has been linked to pretty much every head coach opening this off-season, with many people connecting the dots with him and the Atlanta Falcons. Wherever he lands, it appears that there will be happy players in the locker room.
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