WFAN’s Joe Benigno urges Jets to hire Rex Ryan

With Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets seemingly out of ways to salvage their season, WFAN’s Joe Benigno has the answer: Rex Ryan.

The Jets already tried a coaching change this season by firing Robert Saleh after five weeks. They’ve tried a personnel change by adding Davante Adams and Haason Reddick. Aaron Rodgers tried blaming his teammates and even attempted to fault the media. And as the losses continue to mount, this team that entered the season with Super Bowl expectations is seemingly out of solutions. But they haven’t tried luring Rex Ryan away from ESPN and back onto their sideline.

.@JoeBenigno_Real is done with the Jets’ ineptitude…he wants Rex Ryan back! pic.twitter.com/BgpZkeFXMp

— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) October 28, 2024

“This is insane. It’s insane, but I would do this,” Benigno said during his weekly spot with WFAN’s afternoon hosts Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. I would get Rex right now. Rex Ryan, right now…where we going? What are we, going to be 4-13? WHAT THE HELL’S THE DIFFERENCE?! He wants the job. Bring him in, let Ulbrich go back to D-coordinator, and let’s see what happens. It can’t be any worse.”

If making a head coaching change after just five games is unconventional, what would making a second head coaching change after another five games be considered? The concept of thinking Rex Ryan is the final bandage needed to turn the Jets season around is so farfetched it’s not even worth considering. The Jets are what they are, a bad team with a lifeless offense led by an old quarterback who has too much power.

Dropping Ryan into the mess that is the New York Jets right now would be putting him into an impossible situation. And we’re not even bringing up the fact that Ryan runs a 3-4 defense while Ulbrich runs the 4-3. But if they Jets continued down the inevitable path of losing even with Ryan as their head coach, they would still be forced to clean house and fire him at the end of the season. So if Benigno really wants Ryan to coach the Jets again, then he should root for it to happen in the offseason.

And here’s the thing, it might not be a good idea for the Jets to go back to Ryan in the offseason, but it’s not a crazy one. If Rodgers wants to run it back next season, who’s going to want to coach a slow, old, and prickly quarterback? And if Rodgers doesn’t want to run it back next season, who’s going to want to coach a directionless franchise with an impulsive owner who the rest of the league has been laughing at for well over a decade?

The answer is Rex Ryan. The ESPN NFL analyst and former Jets head coach would jump at either of those scenarios and recently admitted as much. Earlier this week, Ryan told ESPN New York’s morning radio show DiPietro & Rothenberg that he would accept the Jets head coaching job “in a second.” In a world where the Jets might struggle to find head coaching candidates in the offseason, Ryan is already pleading for an interview.

[WFAN]