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In each of his first two seasons as an NFL head coach, Rex Ryan led the New York Jets to the AFC Championship Game. While his team fell in both outings, it seemed as if Ryan would have a long, successful career as a head coach in the league.
However, things did not turn out that way; after those two long playoff runs, Ryan coached six more seasons across two teams and failed to make the playoffs again. Before the final game of the 2016 season, Ryan was fired by the Buffalo Bills, whom he had joined a year earlier. Since then, Ryan has not coached at all, either as a head coach or assistant, despite rumors linking him to the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys.
But Ryan, who has since become a TV personality for ESPN, said he still has a desire to lead an NFL team again at some point.
“Nobody called. I’ve never got one freaking phone call. Not one chance to be a head coach, not one. Not a single interview,” Ryan said on ‘The Pivot Podcast' while explaining why he hasn't coached since his firing eight years ago. “As far as like, being a defensive coordinator, yeah there have been — I reached out to Dallas this year because I figured, ‘Well hell, this team is loaded that I’ll go out and maybe this will give me that opportunity to show that, ‘Yeah, I am best that’s ever done it.' But there are very few teams like that. To assume [that] I’ll just take any coordinator job, that’s not the case. But being a head coach, hell yeah I want to go back. But it’s a two-way street and that street looks like a one-way — and that’s me the hell out of here.”
Rex Ryan spent 8 seasons as NFL head coach
In parts of six seasons as an NFL head coach from 2009 to 2016, Ryan went 61-66 while making those two playoff appearances to begin his stint with the Jets. In his third season in New York, Ryan's team missed the playoffs by a game with an 8-8 record before dipping to 6-10 the following season. While the Jets jumped back up to 8-8 in 2013, the team narrowly missed the playoffs again. In 2014, the Jets lost all but four of their games, dooming Ryan, who was fired a day after a season-ending win against the Miami Dolphins.
Ryan went 8-8 and 7-8 in his two seasons with the Bills, respectively, and was fired before Buffalo was set to play the Jets in the season finale.
Before becoming a head coach, Ryan developed a reputation as an elite defensive mind. After beginning his coaching career in the college ranks, Ryan joined the Baltimore Ravens in 1999 as the defensive line coach. After six seasons, Brian Billick promoted Ryan to defensive coordinator, a position he excelled in and held until being hired by the Jets before the 2009 season.
