Transcript of head coach Rex Ryan's news conference following Wednesday's midday practice at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center:
Injury update: I know this will surprise everybody, but Darrelle [Revis] and Calvin [Pace] did not practice today. Darrelle actually did individual and then was held out of all of the team activities today. Guys that were full: Jim Leonhard, bicep, and by the way, he got smacked in the face by Eric Smith. Nick Mangold, shoulder. Brandon Moore, hamstring and [Jamaal] Westerman, ankle. All of those guys were full-go. Calvin and Darrelle were not. I had somebody relay it to Darrelle today, knowing you guys were going to speak to Darrelle first before I had the press conference, we changed things up, I'm always trying to do what's right for you guys, but had somebody mention to Darrelle that it's going to be on me. It's going to be put on my shoulders.
This is the way I like it. I'm usually more comfortable this way anyway. Some of you have reported about it before. He is such a competitor that, quite honestly, he is going to play. He doesn't want to let the teammates down, this organization down. What I'm going to do is take all the information, see it with my own two eyes, talk to DT [Dennis Thurman], talk to our trainers and doctors, who I have 100% confidence in, talk to Darrelle, and watch to see how it goes. Then we'll make that decision based on the best interests of this team and of Darrelle. I feel better about that. Same thing with Calvin and any player moving forward. I'm going to try to take that responsibility on more. Do I have all the answers? Absolutely not. Will this change? Maybe, but I think this is best thing for us going forward. It's not really an unbiased answer, but it is, because I do care for our players as much as I care about this organization. It's in the win business, but I'm also in the what's-right business. I think I can be the most impartial guy that there is.
On saying that he learned a lesson by playing Revis…
No. I had complete confidence that he could play in the game. That's why he was out there. When I said it was going to be his decision whether he plays, I think that's wrong. His decision is he's going to play. That's just him being a competitor. I'm going to take his input for sure. I'm never going to put a player out there that doesn't think he can play. I'll take all of the information, gather it and then make the right decision. I'm not saying it wasn't the right decision to play Darrelle last week. I'm not saying that. I will say this. We are going to make sure we are watching him, because when I watched the tape, at the end of the game, in particular, Darrelle wasn't the same guy that he always is. He wasn't finishing plays like he always does, so clearly the swelling bothered him, but he never said a word about it.
What we have to have is eyes on him and I'll have the appropriate guys with eyes on him. Then I'll be able to say, "Hey, we have got to get him out." Same thing with Calvin Pace. Calvin really played more snaps than I would have wanted him to play, and it's tough, because he's playing so well. You don't see a drop off in his play, but yet he's really sore right now. We'll see how it goes. We'll see how both of them practice. I know competitively they both want to play. I have to make sure that we are doing the best thing for the players and the team.
On when he will make a decision on if Revis will play on Sunday…
Whenever. I'm not a guy that holds information to get a competitive edge. He's not out there, play one. Oh, that's a huge edge [laughter]. That's the life we live I guess. Some people do it their way. Some people don't. Quite honestly, if he's going to be out there, go for it. I don't really need to play the politics of that. If I see something where clearly he's not ready to go, and maybe we have an advantage of just letting him go into treatment, we'll do that just like we have two previous weeks. We made that decision that he wasn't going to be active, and we made that decision.
On if Revis will travel to Denver and be a game time decision…
Well, that's a possibility. If we don't feel good about it, we wouldn't do that. If we know there's just no way he's going to do this, we would leave him back here. You don't want a guy going across country, flying out there when he can get plenty of treatment here. But if there's a good opportunity and we feel that there's a strong possibility he can play, then we'll take him with us.
On what triggered is change of thought on deciding if a player will play…
I don't know. I just think that it probably isn't real fair to put it in their hand. Stop back and look at it, and I've made a ton of mistakes before and this may be another one, but it wasn't a mistake to play him. I feel that it was not a mistake to play him. I think he could have played and we feel good about it. It's just the way that every other decision, a football decision, is made by me, with a lot of opinions. I don't do anything individually, but I collect all the facts and then I make the decision. Why wouldn't I make this decision? Obviously, I'm going to lean heavily on John Melody and our doctors and our medical staff and that's the way we are going to do it.
On what his policy in the past has been for deciding if a player will play…
I would help in that decision. If a player doesn't feel comfortable, I will never play him. Period. Now, in this case, or maybe some other ones, the player is always going to say, "Yeah, okay, I'm ready to go. I can do it," because they are competitive. Especially when it gets close to game time and when the band is playing, everybody wants to play. Is that in the best interests of that individual? I think I can look at it, weigh all the facts, talk to the player, but talk to the position coach, and have a better idea if he can go or to the. The thing that I think is going to change would be how we are going to look at these players, make sure that we are watching them while the game is going on and we can. Clearly, after I watched the tape, I saw at the end of the game Darrelle wasn't the Darrelle Revis that we know.
On how much the bye week factors into the decision of if a player will play…
I think that's a separate deal. Even though that's something hanging there that you know you have, our season is not based on one game. Now, with that said, if a guy can play and he's healthy, and we feel like that he's not going to put himself in jeopardy, then we'll play him because we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to win a football game. Again, some of these injuries may be that it's just part of it that you're going to be sore after a game, whether it's scar tissue breaking up or whatever. It's almost a positive to actually go through this. Are they going to be sore? Absolutely. Nick Mangold's shoulder is sore, but he's better each Monday after a game or each Tuesday after a game. He's feeling a little bit better. Does he take medicine to play a game? Yeah, he does, but it's not doing anything structurally to hurt his shoulder more. We would never do that.
On if Revis at 75 percent is still better than most players at 100 percent…
That would be most people I would think. That would be an interesting scenario and that's kind of what ifs and all that stuff. The thing that I'll say is if he there is no threat of him injuring himself worse, then you may consider that. I think that percentage would probably have to be a little higher than 75 percent if that was the case or not.
On if Drew Coleman will start if Revis doesn't play…
Yes. Drew played well until he got hit in the stomach. He got punched in the stomach and I guess it was a good blow. It was probably a standing eight count that they had to give him. He came back in, but he wasn't the same fighter. Let's just put it that way.
On Revis saying it would be ok to rest him this week…
We'll let this play out and see where he's at. I know our strength coach, Sal [Alosi], was really encouraged by the way he looked today. We'll see. Just give him an honest evaluation as soon as we possibly can.
On if Revis needs to practice…
I think we would all feel better if he did practice. Coming off this injury, let's see how he's moving around. It could be we think he looks great and all of a sudden we fly to Denver and he's not great. That could happen also.
On playing in Denver's high altitude…
The advice I gave to the team today was to make sure that we hydrated. A lot of teams make the mistake of showing up and treating it just like another opponent. They will go a night before the game where we are going to go Friday night. We are treating it like we did last year when we went to the West Coast. We are flying out another day early. We'll be there Friday night. We'll stay on East Coast time. We won't worry about it being Mountain time, put everything on East Coast time, and we'll make sure we are hydrated and we are taking care of our bodies and getting rest and all of the things that you normally would.
On if Pace is fatigued or sore…
No, it's sore. He's sore, no question about it. He's sore.
On if there are any doubts that Pace will not play on Sunday…
Right now, it would be tough for him to play, I would think. We are only a couple of days out from just playing, so I think he's going to get better and better as the week goes on.
On if Pace suffered a setback…
No. The structure of his foot is fine.
On if they match up well against Denver because of how well Baltimore played against them…
Well, a lot of factors go into it. They are playing at home in front of their crowd. Historically, they have done well like that. Just because Baltimore beat them doesn't mean that we are going to or if they did certain things, it doesn't mean we are going to have the same success. Just like if Baltimore gets beat by somebody, it doesn't mean we can't beat them. Each game is different. We are just going to make sure that they are playing the New York Jets and not anybody else. We are going to be out there representing us and we are coming in there. We are very serious about this game and the fact that they had a tough one with Baltimore last week doesn't concern us. What concerns us is how we play, how we prepare and that's how we are approaching it.
On what he's seen from Braylon Edwards…
His focus has been terrific. He has been absolutely outstanding for us, not as a receiver, but with the type of blocking he's doing down the field. He went up for that pass, that last throw that Sanchez threw, and he was about five feet off the ground knowing he's going to get hit. He still went up and I'm like, "Oh, man." If it's just a couple inches down, he makes the catch and we don't have to play defense. As bad as we managed the clock, the game was going to be over. It was just a tad high. He's courageous. He's playing great. His focus is great. He's into it. He's proud of his teammates. That's what you want in any of your players.
