Jets coach Rex Ryan usually starts each year bounding with optimism that his team will win the Super Bowl. This year Ryan tempered that optimism before the season, and at the halfway point he’s sounding even less confident that he has his team in the right place.
But Ryan is still saying that he’s enthusiastic about getting the second half of the season underway.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am,” Ryan said on Monday, via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “I know we’re not where we want to be. We’re not even close. We’re not sniffing the playoffs. We’re not sniffing anything right now. But I want to get there. I’m excited about the prospects in front of us.”
Ryan said changes are coming on the 3-5 Jets over the second half of the season, although he declined to say what those changes will be.
“We will be doing some different things. I don’t want to get into the specifics of it,” Ryan said. “If there’s an advantage to be gained, then I want to gain that advantage without letting our opponent know. I’m excited about trying to implement some of these things.”
Whatever those changes are, they’d have to be significant to make the Jets -- who are currently two games behind in both the AFC East and the AFC wild card race -- into a place where they can sniff the playoffs.