If the Jets are a clown car, Rex Ryan thinks it’s full of hard-working clowns.
Ryan has consistently defended his players during an offseason in which the Jets were described as a circus, and Ryan -- perhaps feeling vindicated by Sunday’s win over the Bills -- said on Wednesday that he has known all along that this bunch of guys is no joke.
“It was pretty obvious that our team should be taken seriously when we had 99 percent participation in a voluntary offseason conditioning program, for the entire thing,” Ryan said. “I think we’re the only team in the league that did that. We probably should have been taken a little more seriously, but again I certainly understand we did not reach our expectations the year before and whether it’s concerning, that’s all fine and dandy. Again, it’s a brand new year and I think I’m wasting my time on dwelling what happened in the past.”
Offseason workout participation isn’t an official NFL statistic, so there’s no way of knowing who led the league in that category, but Ryan’s boastfulness is understandable this week. On Sunday, the Jets really did look like a team that takes its business seriously.