Rex Ryan Press Conference Transcript 4/19/11

On Tuesday New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan addressed the media following the release of the NFL schedule.  Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.

On having five primetime games…

Well, I think you’re giving me way too much credit as far as where I’ve gotten them. I think it’s where we’ve gotten ourselves as an entire organization. We hope this trend continues for a long time. If you have five prime-time games, people want to watch you and people anticipate us having an outstanding season. And the fact that we’re the only team to make it to the final four two years in a row obviously speaks to that. This is to be expected, but it’s still exciting also.

On facing his brother in Week One…

Well it’s always great. I have a great time going against my brother; it’s always kind of emotional for me and everything else. But the fact that it’s on 9-11, the 10th anniversary of 9-11, that’s where the focus should be, it shouldn’t be on my brother and I competing against each other even though that’s a family thing and that’s something that we’re awful proud of. But the fact that it’s going to be on the 10th anniversary of 9-11, I feel honored that we’re going to be playing, right there in our stadium. That’s fantastic. It’s obviously going to be an emotional night for everybody, not just in New York/New Jersey area but in the whole country. I feel honored we’ll be opening up the season playing at home.

On three straight road games Weeks Three through Five…

Yeah, you start off going to Oakland then come back and play at Baltimore, and at New England. Quite honestly, that’s a difficult stretch, three road games in a row. But at other end of it, you’re going to have other games at home. That’s a tough stretch but again, they’re looking at it like, ‘Oh man, we’re going to have to play the Jets.’ It goes both ways. We have no excuses, we’ve never made excuses, and we’ll be ready to play anywhere.

On if he is confident the season will start on time…

I’m confident we’ll have a season but again, we’re going to be ready to play. Whenever they say, ‘Hey, alright you guys, we’re going back to work, we’re playing,’ and all that kind of stuff, we’re ready. Whatever schedule it is, we’ll be ready for it. We’re not making any excuses whatsoever.

On how the lockout has affected his offseason…

It’s kind of business as usual. We’re getting ready for the draft. We’re really dialed in on the draft. (General Manager) Mike Tannenbaum, (Vice President of College Scouting) Joey Clinkscales and all our scouts do an unbelievable job. The other thing that we do is we include our coaches. For instance, we did the secondary today, so (Defensive Back Coach) Dennis Thurman, (Assistant Defensive Back Coach/Quality Control) Jim O’Neil and (Defensive Coordinator) Mike Pettine were all in there as well and each guy has reports to do. I actually did about 30 reports. Mike had me do some defensive players. For some reason I didn’t do too many reports on offensive players. You get everybody’s opinion, everybody read their report. We feel like we have such a thorough process, we have (prospects) coming in, speaking to the coaches. We’re really prepared for the draft. We feel good about it. We just finished up our initial board where you go through all the positions today. We feel great about our process, we feel great about our board, and we are excited about the draft.

On if he is disappointed that he will not face the Giants in the season opener…

Not really. We knew who we were going to play, we never knew when. We know who we were going to play, we knew we were going to play the Giants at some point, we knew we were going to play Dallas at some point. The fact that it is Dallas on opening night and it’s going to be the Giants on Christmas Eve, that’s fine. I think those are going to be some great games, there’s no question those are going to be some great games. We just play who they tell us to and when they tell us (to). It’s our job to be ready to go and I can promise you this, we’re confident our team is going to be ready to go.

On if there will be a lot of trash-talking with his brother leading into the game…

That could be. It’s going to be a little different. The fact that the game is on opening night and the 10-year anniversary of 9-11 will put a little damper on (the trash-talking). I certainly don’t want to do something that would take away from (honoring the anniversary of 9-11). This game certainly won’t be about my brother and I. I think there probably won’t be as much trash-talking as maybe what’s gone on in the past.

On how tough it is on his brother Rob preparing a new defense with no players…

I hope it’s real tough. (laughter) To be honest, that team is going to be ready to go. He’s going to have them buzzing. He’s a tremendous coach and we know he’ll have his team ready to go. Again, our focus is going to be on us and not on them as much.

On if he has run into any Jets players in the Florham Park area during the lockout…

No I have not. I don’t get out much. I have not run into anybody.

Tyson Rauch

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