Rex Ryan walked into training camp at SUNY Cortland and he was hard to recognize. Noticeably slimmer, Rex spoke to the media about the start of camp and the upcoming season.
On if it feels good to be back in Cortland…
It does. It’s funny, when you turn into Cortland it felt great and then you get into town and you see all of the Cortland people out there, it’s great. We did miss it last year. The thing about this is you are far enough away and, nothing against families or anything else, but you have each other and (you) have got football and I think that’s a good thing.
On if he can see that the team wants to prove something…
I don’t know if I see it right now but we are getting ready to see it and the big thing is that the league sees it in 45 days. My job is in 45 days to build a football team that is in a certain image and plays like Jets and that is what we plan on doing.
On if he was happy to see Darrelle Revis this morning…
It was nothing. There is a corner there. (joking) I mentioned the entire time that I expected Darrelle to be here. Obviously, he is great. There is no question how I feel about Darrelle, but I am here to coach this team. Obviously, I am happy he is here. I am happy that everyone is here as a football team which is not surprising, considering you had 99 percent participation in the voluntary off-season conditioning workouts. It is not surprising that this team would be in good shape.
On the plan for the first practice…
You know I would like to scrimmage immediately but, with the new rules and all that stuff, we won’t be. It is good. Guys want to come out here and hit and everything else and that is kind of the thing you have to back down on because you have a few days before we are able to get the full pads on. It will be teaching mode, it will be what they retained from the OTA’s and things like that. That is pretty much it. We will start tonight and we are going to build a football team.
On if he has seen Mark Sanchez grow as a leader during the off-season…
Two things I know for sure about Mark right now, he knows this offense better than any player on this team. There is no doubt about that. The other thing is you see the physical maturity of him as well. This is as good as he has looked physically, the strongest he has been physically and I am excited to see how he progresses and everything else but I know we have got him mentally at his best and physically at his best.
On Jeff Otah being placed on the PUP list…
With Jeff, he has not met the terms of the trade agreement right now so we are not going to comment specifically on Jeff. I don’t feel comfortable doing that right now.
On if Otah will be at training camp…
Yeah, he will be here. I don’t know if he is here right now, but he will be.
On his comments regarding Holmes remarks on the two quarterback system…
I think all I remember is saying literally is that we brought Santonio in to be a receiver not the offensive coordinator. Again, we will make those decisions. We will always do what we think is in the best interests of our football team and that is the way it will always be.
On if it bothers him that Holmes may be skeptical on if the two quarterback system will work…
We are always never going to be all lined up. We don’t tell guys what to say and what not to say, all that kind of stuff. I understand where Tone [Santonio] is coming from about the rhythm of a quarterback and all that kind of stuff. Again, we will make those decisions.
On if there is a competition for a starting spot at quarterback…
Did you say cornerback or quarterback, because I don’t think Revis has any competition. I just think that he is who he is. I think you always sit back and say that we clearly have a starting quarterback. Mark Sanchez is clearly our starting quarterback.
On whether there is any scenario other than Sanchez suffering an injury in which Tebow would become the starter for the season opener…
Again, I don’t want to speculate on this or whatever, but Mark Sanchez is our starting quarterback.
On if he wants to create competition at right tackle…
Again, you always try to do what is in the best interests of your football team. If there is an outstanding football player out there and we have a chance, Mike and I talk about this all the time, to make our team better than we are going to investigate that.