Miami Dolphins Will Send Rex Ryan Packing

It’s been six years since the loud mouthed over inflated egotistical Rex Ryan was hired by the New York Jets. After 11 games against the Miami Dolphins, Sunday, the 12th game will almost assuredly be his last. As Miami Dolphins fans there is nothing sweeter than watching a divisional head coach get fired but you have to admit, the AFC East is going to be a lot more boring without him.

Think about it. Doug Marrone in Buffalo will now be the loudest head coach in the AFC East and he doesn’t talk all that much. Bill Belichick doesn’t talk at all, and Joe Philbin isn’t exactly an emotional leader either. So depending on who the Jets decide to hire, there won’t be any more one liners to laugh at or about.

In his six years with the Jets Ryan has posted a record of 45-50. His first two seasons culminated in AFC Championship game losses and then he got bogged down by very poor general manager decisions. The team drafted very poorly and made trades that shouldn’t have been made. Yet for all the bad picks that were made by Mike Tannenbaum…yes the same guy who gives Stephen Ross advise, Ryan stood by his players and talked up their talent as otherworldly. It’s one of the reasons his players like him so much.

There is no denying that Ryan is a good coach and with a more well rounded team he may have actually taken the Jets to a Super Bowl appearance. Fortunately for Dolphins fans that didn’t happen. New England Patriots fans are stuck up, New York Jets fans are deplorable. Sure Miami fans still tout a 17-0 perfect season but Jets fans still talk about Super Bowl III.

There is a few options for Rex Ryan this off-season as the NFL is expecting at least four head coaching vacancies. Oakland is expected to fire interim head coach Tony Sparano…what a fit for Ryan to join the Oakland community. In New York the Giants are toying with the idea of firing Tom Coughlin while in Chicago the Bears are likely one and done with Marc Trestman.  Finally in Atlanta Mike Smith is likely out as well. Of those vacancies Oakland makes the most sense but Ryan’s defensive coaching could make him a candidate for Chicago. A return of a Ryan to the Bears wouldn’t surprise me.

Of course there is also the possibility of taking a defensive coordinator job as well and while we don’t know yet what teams will have openings we do know that the four losing their HC’s will likely have vacancies. Perhaps Miami will as well.

Kevin Coyle has done well at times but his defense is very inconsistent especially late in games where the Dolphins have lost five games this season in the 4th quarter with three of them in the final four minutes. The team has been able to elevate against good teams and last Sunday had to come from behind to beat the Minnesota Vikings who were 5-8 coming into that game. It took a great defensive stand late and an almost perfect offensive performance to beat them. Meanwhile the Jets played New England, the AFC’s best team, to a 17-16 loss.

Rex Ryan isn’t for everyone but I can tell you that his players would do anything for him and if he would shut his mouth he would probably be viewed a whole lot different. He is his father Buddy Ryan’s son without question.

Up until this season I really didn’t think much of Rex Ryan honestly. Then I looked at the body of work as a whole. I looked at the choices by his GM the inability to decide on his own starting quarterback, it was an odd situation for an NFL head coach and Ryan uncharacteristically kept his mouth shut about it. He went about his job and tried to get the players he had ready to play. It wasn’t a good situation and the record of the Jets shows that. This Sunday Ryan will try to get out of Miami with a win. There is nothing he would want more and his players want to give that to him.

If Ryan coached a team outside of the AFC many fans of the Dolphins would be rooting for the guy or at the very least like him a little more than they hate him. But Ryan does coach the Jets and because of that we revel in his losses and his after game media pressers. It’s part of the game and part of being a fan.

Still when this season is over and the off-season moves from talk of 2014 to talk of 2015 and we start to look closer at the moves being made by the Miami Dolphins rivals we will be examining a new head coach in New York as well. And that’s good because honestly, Rex Ryan always scared me. He knew how to beat you and he knew how to get very weak players elevated to a level of believing they could as well. No one knows what the next head coach will bring but I’m glad they didn’t fire the GM and retain Ryan.

Rex Ryan was, no he is, loud, obnoxious, gave a Miami Dolphins fan the finger, and so much more.  But he is one well prepared coach who can get his players to play at the level his mouth puts them at. At least when he has the players to do it.

I know this sounds a lot like kissing this guys ass, or feet as it may be but I respect Ryan. Unlike Bill Belichick who to me will always be shadowed by his videotaping scandal, Ryan I respect. Simply because he never wavered from who he is, and if Joe Philbin realizes that his defense could and will be better with someone else calling it, I would very much welcome that same loud mouthed SOB that is going to lose his job after Sunday.