New York Jets coach Rex Ryan was on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio New York earlier this week. Among other things, Ryan talked about the departure of Shaun Ellis to the New England Patriots and Nnamdi Asomugh’s decision to sign with Philadelphia instead of with the Jets.
Q: The big story today is that Shaun Ellis signed with the Patriots yesterday. Here’s what I don’t understand Rex. You guys made him an offer. That’s what you thought he was worth. Then the Patriots go out and an up the offer by 4 times the amount you guys were offering. How could the Patriots think that much more of him than you guys?
A: “Well no. I disagree a little bit. I think what happens is that you look at your team. This isn’t a thing where you just have blank spending or we would have the entire team back. We liked our team from last year. This is about you gotta balance things. We couldn’t afford with the draft picks that we’ve had and things like that. We would have liked to have Shaun back, but it would have to have been at our price.”
A: Rex, you always hear how football players around the league want to play for you and the Jets. The Jets offered Nnamdi Asomugha a great deal, but he decided to go somewhere else. Did that shock you when Mike Tannenbaum said we are not going to get Nnamdi Asomugha? What did you think?
A: “No it never shocked me at all. It’s one of those things. It’s where you place your priorities and if your priorities chase the last dollar than obviously that is what you are going to do. I felt we had a great chance to get him, but it certainly was not a forgone conclusion that we were going to get him. We never flinched one bit. In fact if you said this was the team we were going to end up with we would have signed on for this one. I think Nnamdi Asomugha is a terrific player. There’s no question about that. He’s a great, fine, young man, but again sometimes maybe this place isn’t for everybody. I truly think that this is the time to be a Jet. This is our golden age to be a New York Jet. I think we can compete with any team in the league. In fact I think we will beat every team in this league. The beauty of it is that it’s going to be starting up real soon and we are going to find out.”
Q: Nnamdi Asomugha said he had a better chance to win Super Bowl in Philadelphia. Do you think he had a better chance in Philly or here in New York?
A: “We get to answer that on the field and I am happy for that. I definitely believe we can win it here. I don’t know there situation or whatever and I don’t really care. I know how we feel that we got the team to beat and we’ll find out.”