Jets coach Rex Ryan stuck his neck out for quarterback Mark Sanchez by sticking with Sanchez as the starter. But Ryan says he doesn’t think his own future is necessarily tied to Sanchez’s.
At his press conference today, when a reporter suggested that getting the quarterback decision right could be the key to Ryan’s own future, Ryan disagreed with that.
“This is a big decision. [A big factor] in determining wins and losses is the play of your quarterback a lot of times,” Ryan said, via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “But no, I don’t feel that my future’s tied in with how we do things [with the quarterback].”
Ryan has always remained loyal to Sanchez, but he said his decision to stick with Sanchez wasn’t about loyalty, it was about winning at Jacksonville on Sunday.
“I think I’m loyal to all of our players,” Ryan said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. I also have a responsibility to this football team. And that’s to put the best guys out there that give us a chance to win. I think the decision here to go with Mark [is] something that I believe in.”
Ultimately, Ryan’s future is tied not to any particular player but to whether he wins enough games. But as long as Sanchez is Ryan’s starting quarterback, Sanchez will be the player who has the most to do with whether Ryan is winning enough games to keep his job.