MONDAY, 7:30am: The Jets have officially informed Ryan he has been fired, tweets Jay Glazer of FOX Sports. The Jets themselves have confirmed as much (via Twitter), adding that Idzik’s firing has been made official as well.
SUNDAY, 11:10pm: Not that this should come as much of a surprise as Black Monday approaches in the NFL, but the Jets and owner Woody Johnson are prepared to fire head coach Rex Ryan and general manager John Idzik, according to Chris Mortenson of ESPN (via Twitter).
Mortenson writes that Idzik will be fired as expected, and that Johnson will not keep Ryan hanging as to wait on the next general manager to decide that.
In the recent days, Pro Football Rumors has monitored the situation with the Jets’ head coach and front office very closely, constantly updating on the hirings Johnson has made and the general feeling surrounding both Ryan and Idzik.
Ryan was 45-50 as head coach of the Jets, including this disastrous 2014 season which saw the team win only four games. In his first two seasons, Ryan and quarterback Mark Sanchez won four road playoff games en route to back-to-back appearances in the AFC Championship game.
It was reported over the weekend that Johnson’s consultants had already made calls concerning available coach and general manager candidates, so the move does not come as a shock.
Ryan will be a highly desired coach on the open market this offseason, according to Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com (via Twitter). Fitzgerald does believe Ryan will do better long term if he sits out a year before coming back to coaching.
A PFR poll tallied in mid-October had a majority of readers believing Ryan would most likely be working in TV in 2015, but a significant number thought he would still be coaching in the NFL somewhere, with those votes split amongst a few teams.
Atlanta seems like the obvious fit, and after being embarrassed today against the Panthers and failing to make the playoffs, Mike Smith could be out as head coach there. Owner Arthur Blank reportedly considered Ryan a front runner back when that job was open in the first place.
Idzik’s tenure with the Jets was far less celebrated, lasting only two seasons with the team. It would be difficult to imagine him achieving another general manager job in the NFL anytime soon, but he could go back to Seattle – where he had past success – or pursue another front office job with an NFL team.