If the Jets crave attention, they have to be willing to tolerate one of the big things that comes with it.
Scrutiny.
And the biggest source of scrutiny remains the holdout of cornerback Darrelle Revis.
Coach Rex Ryan, who meets seemingly at infinite length with the media on a daily basis, recently bristled at the notion that the bouquets he has lavished on Revis has helped make Revis think he’s the best defensive player in the game, and that he should therefore be paid accordingly.
“I’m just going to be myself,” Ryan said Thursday. “I’ve stated all along the kind of player I think Darrelle is. People want to throw that in our face that we should not say it, but the tape doesn’t lie. This guy is a heck of a football player.”
So then, on Friday, Ryan continued to heap praise on his new BFF, cornerback Antonio Cromartie.
“We know we have a great corner,” Ryan said of Cromartie. “That’s why we traded for him. That is a top-leveI [trade]. [We know] we have a big time corner here. Obviously, he’s one of the elite corners in this league. Does it make it easier? We’re business as usual. We’re trying to put a great defense and offense out there regardless of who’s here or who’s not here. I wouldn’t look at it that way. Darrelle’s issue is a different thing. We’re just happy that Cromartie is getting better. He’s trying to do it our way. He doesn’t have the know-it-all mentality. He [knows] that Dennis Thurman is a great coach and he’s leaning on him. That’s exciting to me because you can see that he has been at this level, but he has an even higher ceiling. We’re really excited about how he is coming along.”
Yes, and they’ll continue to be excited until Cromartie begins to believe the things that Ryan is saying -- and when he decides that he wants more money.