Transcript of Jets head coach Rex Ryan's news conference following Friday's midday practice:
We are excited about playing this game. Also excited that it will be Winston Hill Day. The Jets are honoring Winston Hill, who is one of my favorite players of all time. He was an eight-time Pro Bowl player for the Jets, I remember that. A great left tackle and really a heck of a guy. I probably haven't seen him for 30 years or so. It's going to be interesting, but he was one of my childhood favorites growing up. I am really looking forward to that. Hopefully we can put on a show and make him proud of the current Jets team.
Injuries, we have Lito Sheppard. I list him as doubtful. And questionable: David Clowney with his ankle, Jerricho [Cotchery], hamstring, Shaun Ellis, knee, ankle, Bart Scott, knee, Brad Smith, quad. And then probable, David Harris, Brandon Moore, Donald Strickland, Bryan Thomas and Damien Woody. Those guys were full participants. I expect everybody to play with the exception of probably Lito. We'll see what happens with that group tomorrow and Sunday. I feel good about our guys right now.
On having Cotchery back…
I can't wait to see that happen. He was having a great year for us before the injury. He was having a terrific year for us, so hopefully we can get him back on track. I know [Mark] Sanchez and he really seemed to be on fire there together, so hopefully they don't miss a beat when he comes back.
On how big of a difference it makes going into the bye week 5-3 instead of 4-4…
A game [laughter]. It's a big difference. You have a little time off, you hate to go into your bye with a loss. It's two weeks you have to sit around and wait to play. If you win, you can hopefully gain a lot of momentum from it. I know Miami went into their bye week after they beat us so hopefully we can return the favor.
On if the bye week schedule is based on a win or a loss…
No. The players already have their schedule in advance. If we lose, you can say, "All right, we're having two-a-days." [laughter] You may feel like that after a game, but you have to look out for your players. Our bye is at the perfect time, midway through the regular season. I think it is going to be a perfect time for us. We've had it planned way in advance of this, what our schedule would be.
On the Jets–Dolphins rivalry…
This is only my second game against them so you probably need to lean on somebody who has been here longer than I have. I understand there has always been that history, so it will be fun as long as we win, but if you lose, you don't like it as much. The intensity is going to be there. There is no question about it. The fact that they won the game with six seconds left, it shows how close the two teams are. We get them at our place and we'll see what happens.
On if he agrees with Bart Scott and Kerry Rhodes that the loss to Miami was an embarrassment…
Oh, yes. I said that. Right after the game, I said that it was an embarrassment. It was an embarrassment to me. Very few times that's ever happened in my coaching career that I felt that we just never played on defense that day. I know everybody talks about the Wildcat, but the biggest disappointment to me was how the young quarterback did against us. He had a 130 quarterback rating. That's crazy, so I think that was the biggest disappointment to me in that game was how we defended the pass. Don't get me wrong, I want to defend the run better this time, but defending the pass we have to do better or it will be ridiculous.
On if the uncertainty with the Wildcat set up the pass for Miami…
Again, something did. The fact that it was probably a lot of second-and-2's had a lot to do with it.
On Joey Porter taking issue with his comments concerning Will Allen…
I don't care about that. If he's got issues with me about one of their guys being out, I don't feel sorry for them losing Will Allen. Obviously, I don't like it for any player to be hurt, but if they're looking for sympathy because Will Allen is out of the game, well, we've got Kris Jenkins out and we've got Leon Washington out for the season — two guys that are Pro Bowl players. No disrespect to Will Allen, but I don't think he's going to make a Pro Bowl anytime soon. He's a decent player, but whatever.
On if the back-and-forth between players adds to the emotions of the game…
It's going to be an emotional game. There's no doubt about it. We're going to get what they've got and they're going to get what we've got. I'm just going to quote Ronnie Brown. He made a great statement that the 11 toughest guys on the field are going to be successful. I agree with that statement. It's going to play out on Sunday.
On Ronnie Brown saying that last year's Baltimore defense was better than this year's Jets defense…
We were certainly better that day [Miami–Baltimore playoff game in January]. It wasn't even a contest that day. I would say that's a true statement that day. I think our football team and our defense is much better than what we showed that Monday night, but all you can go with is what happened. We'll find out. The great thing is we get a chance to prove it, so we'll see.
On Leon Washington's contract…
This is definitely not the time to talk about that. I think it's been well-documented what I think of Leon Washington as a person and what I think of him as a player, so I'll leave it at that.
On if the organization will take care of Washington…
We think Leon Washington's going to be here a long time. We'll just put it that way. I'm not going to get into specifics.
On Calvin Pace's performance last week…
That was great to see. Three sacks, three tackles for loss, two PBUs and two forced fumbles, I don't know if he can have that impact every week, but I'll sign up for it. He really is a tremendous player. I think we saw that in the preseason as well. He was consistently making plays and pressuring the quarterback. We think he's that kind of player.
On Scott's knee injury…
I don't know the exact terms. I think it was a MCL sprain. I don't know any of the specifics. I've been around Bart long enough to know he'll play.
