Rex Ryan sounds concerningly confident he's best candidate for Jets head coach job

The New York Jets are a singular experiment in how to torture a fanbase.

This is coming from an avid Philadelphia 76ers fan: there isn't a worse organization in sports when it comes to undermining high expectations and finding new, creative ways to plummet the average fan into the bottomless pit of despair.

Every glimmer of hope is snuffed out. Relentlessly and without exception. Remember when Aaron Rodgers trotted out on the field with an American flag and we were all like, "man, this feels different!"

Well, it was not different. Not at all.

New York has not been a credible organization in quite some time, and the latest reporting from around the team does not hint at improvement. In fact, the Jets are flirting with disaster of the most acute and avoidable variety.

Somehow, some way, Rex Ryan has wormed his way into consideration for the Jets head coaching job. And folks, the former Jets head coach is extremely confident in his chances.

Here is how Ryan responded when asked if he expects to get the job, per the DiPietro & Rothenberg Show:

"Oh, 100 percent, absolutely, I do,"

Yes, Rex Ryan thinks he's going to get the Jets head coaching job

Not only does Ryan believe in his chances of getting the Jets job. He thinks he is far and away the best candidate, even name-dropping Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson, who is probably the most sought-after candidate in the coaching carousel.

"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 Ben Johnson, I love him, I absolutely love him, but I'm a better candidate for this job than he would be."

Ryan views this as more than an X's and O's, schematic issue. He thinks the problems run deeper in New York — down to the roots of the organization. On that front, he's correct. Frankly, he's spot on. The Jets' aimlessness absolutely stems from poor management and a lack of accountability, which starts at the top with Woody Johnson. The Jets' roster has enough talent to win more than five games, but it all feels like a giant, discombobulated mess.

Where Ryan's argument falls apart is, well, himself. The idea that Ryan, the former Jets head coach who essentially started this vicious cycle of mediocritiy, is the right man to lead them back to the light is... laughable? Like, honeslty, what are the Jets doing? Why is this man, who hasn't been on an NFL sideline since 2016, even getting an interview? A passing thought?

Ryan spent six years in charge of the Jets and mounted two winning seasons — his first two seasons. He finished with four straight .500 or sub-.500 campaigns before extending that streak in Buffalo for a couple seasons. Ryan is a pioneer of incompetence in the head coaching role. Few have been able to stick around so long while so blatantly delivering subpar results.

The fact that Ryan has been a less than insightful ESPN persona for the last several years only makes this more confounding. Of course the Jets are looking to the TV world for solutions when the obvious move is to hire a talented coordinator in the Ben Johnson vein, or to look for an established winner who can bring some track record of stability to a clubhouse in disarray. Ron Rivera ain't great, but hey, at least he's done some stuff in his career. Ryan's crowning achievement is an 11-win season and a conference championship loss in 2010. That was a long time ago.

New York has a lot of names on its list, so hopefully Ryan is just blowing smoke and ownership is sensible enough to look elsewhere. But, if this does happen... godspeed, Jets fans.