Former NFL player Marcellus Wiley once told me that if you took Bill Parcells out to a practice field and told him he only had five minutes to evaluate 100 players, he could still tell you the strengths and weaknesses of every man on that field to a T. So it’s not surprising that the “Big Tuna” knew that Rex Ryan was going to be successful in the NFL.

According to a ESPNNewYork.com report, Parcells advised Jets’ GM Mike Tannenbaum to hire Ryan two years ago. In fact, had Parcells not be so close with current Dolphins’ head coach Tony Sparano when they two of them coached together in Dallas, he would have hired Ryan in Miami.

“Yes, that’s correct,” Parcells said.

“I was very impressed with Rex when I met with him,” Parcells said Tuesday night by phone. “I could just sense that, ‘Hey, this guy’s going to have a chance.’”

“I had a fierce rivalry with Rex’s father when I was coaching the Giants,” Parcells said, “but I held Buddy in high regard. What made Buddy a dangerous adversary was that he knew what he was looking for personnel-wise, and Rex is the same way. That’s a pretty good head start for Rex because there are quite a few coaches in this league who don’t know what they’re looking for.”

Parcells was very clear in the interview that he takes no credit for Rex’s development, or even for Tannenbaum’s decision to hire him. And why would he? He still receives paychecks with the Miami Dolphins’ logo on it, so why would he want to admit to helping a division rival?

Read the rest of this entry »

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Jets’ GM Mike Tannenbaum and owner Woody Johnson saw the news that Broncos’ linebacker Elvis Dumervil suffered a torn pectoral muscle yesterday.

The conversation probably went something like this:

“We’re f*&%ed with Darrelle Revis, Woody!”

“Now, now – maybe he didn’t hear about this, Mike.”

“It’s all over the f*#&ing news, Woody! Get your head out of your a$$!”

Dumervil led the league in sacks last year while emerging as the Broncos’ best pass-rusher. He also had just signed a lucrative six-year, $61.5 million contract just three weeks before suffering the injury. Now he’s likely to miss the entire season and Denver is up a creek without a paddle in terms of his contract. (Even if the injury keeps him out of football this year, the Broncos still have to pay him.)

One could only imagine that the injury reinforced to Revis the need for him to continue to holdout. He already has former Jet Leon Washington in his ear about what could happen if he plays on a one-year contract, and now Dumervil’s injury serves as yet another reminder to 1) get paid and then 2) play.

The Jets want Revis to either play on a restructured one-year deal or sign a long-term agreement that will pay him slightly less annually than the Raiders are paying Nnamdi Asomugha. But Revis wants neither – especially not the former. Had Dumervil not signed the six-year agreement before suffering the injury, there’s no way the Broncos would have paid him after he tore the muscle. He would have probably had to produce another double-digit sack season just to justify a long-term deal because all of the leverage he got from his performance last year would have flown out the window.

If the Jets were hoping that Revis would blink first, they may be waiting a long time in light of Dumervil’s injury. It might be time for Johnson and Tannenbaum to pay Revis what he wants and call it a day.

Jay Glazer of FOX Sports writes that the Jets have rewarded head coach Rex Ryan with a two-year contract extension.

The new arrangement transforms his deal to last through the 2014 season, something the team also announced Friday that they did for general manager Mike Tannenbaum last month with a new five-year deal.

It’s unclear how much new money Ryan received, but clearly the Jets believe they have their answer at head coach for the foreseeable future. It’s certainly odd that an NFL head coach would get a new deal after just one season. But it shows just how much faith that owner Woody Johnson has in his current head coach.

I was shocked it took until last year before Ryan got his first chance to become a head coach in the NFL. His brashness may have rubbed some front office types the wrong way in interviews, but the Jets obviously love him, as do their players. While he only has one year under his belt, he has already made believers out of everyone who follows the Jets.

NFL sources are telling New York Daily News football columnist Gary Myers that Brett Favre cannot peacefully retire until he gains his revenge on the Green Bay Packers. He wants back into the NFC North Division in order to play the Packers twice next season. Favre wants to play well and show them that it was mistake in trading him away last season.

Myers is connecting the dots and seeing where this may lead:

• Favre retired in February, but the New York Jets refused his request to release him, wanting to keep his rights in the event he changed his mind and wanted to play again – he is prone to flip-flop, of course – and Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff stunk up their new $75 million practice facility in the offseason.
• The Jets traded up to get Mark Sanchez in the draft last weekend and the text-messaging between GM Mike Tannenbaum and Favre intensified. Favre still wanted to completely cut his contractual ties with the Jets. Three days later, the Jets released him. Sources say Favre, who will be 40 in October, wants to keep his options open. Favre released a statement saying, “At this time, I am retired and have no intention of returning to football.”
The three key words: “At this time.”
• The Minnesota Vikings are a quarterback short of being a Super Bowl contender, and they need to sell tickets and have been trying for years to get a new stadium.

Favre’s bitterness is creating this scenario, and he has authorized his agent to indirectly contact the Vikings about playing for them next season. Media reports from Minnesota have reported that the Vikings have had internal discussions about adding Favre to the roster. And many in the NFL believe that we haven’t seen the last of him on a football field. As long as a team is willing to give him a roster spot, Favre will play.

Jets’ GM Mike Tannenbaum revealed after the draft on Sunday that he contacted agent Drew Rosenhaus about Plaxico Burress’s pending legal situation.

“Consistent with our normal approach of performing our due diligence, we contacted Drew Rosenhaus several days ago prior to the draft to inquire about Plaxico’s pending legal situation,” said GM Mike Tannenbaum in a statement Sunday night. “However, we have had no discussions with Drew about Plaxico since that time.”

The Jets’ decision not to draft a wide receiver had nothing to do with their inquiry about the controversial Burress, according to a person with knowledge of the Jets’ thinking. That person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak for the club.

“The Jets kicked the tires a little bit but it hasn’t advanced beyond that,” said the person.

This just goes to prove that talent usually exceeds all else in professional sports. Even though a player was a jag off to his former team and was dumb enough to not only bring a loaded weapon into a nightclub, but actually try and secure that weapon in the band of his sweat pants (who wears sweat pants to a nightclub anyway?) only to shoot himself in the leg, he will still be given every opportunity to get back onto the field.

The Jets are freaking out that they don’t have enough quality receivers to give rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez – and they should be. If the season were to start tomorrow, the Jets would line up Jerricho Cotchery (who is talented, but probably can’t carry a thin receiving corps on his own) and either David Clowney or Brad Smith out wide. Not exactly Jerry Rice and John Taylor, you know?

Still, if Tannenbaum were smart, he’d stay away from Burress and let his legal situation run its course. Then maybe you can see what kind of mental and physical shape the guy is in, and whether or not Roger Goodell is even going to let him see the field next season. And even then, I still wouldn’t touch him with a 700-foot pole.