Rex Ryan questioned the accuracy of teammate Adam Schefter’s report on ESPN’s airwaves.
Earlier this week, it was reported that former Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was expected to become the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, a position he held from 2000 to 2006, and Ryan recently I was having an interview.
This led to a strange exchange on ESPN’s 2024 Super Bowl pregame show on Sunday.
“The Cowboys have hired Mike Zimmer as their defensive coordinator,” Schefter said in a voiceover.
An NFL source said the Cowboys “talked to a lot of candidates, including our own Rex Ryan. I can tell you this, they love Rex.” They were very impressed with Rex. Rex did quite a bit of good for the Jones family, and I’m a little surprised they didn’t hire him as much as they loved him. ”
Host Sam Ponder joked that he was “pretty pissed” that NFL teams were trying to lure Ryan away from ESPN, and that’s when Ryan challenged Schefter’s coverage of Zimmer.
“I can be honest here, first of all, I’m not very confident that Zimmer has the job right now. I’m not sure about that,” Ryan said.
“I can honestly say that I don’t believe that to be the case at this point.”
Ryan was the Jets’ head coach from 2009 to 2014, then spent two seasons as the Bills’ head coach.
He has been out of the NFL since 2016.
“But I will say this: The reason I was gone for seven years is because I called Mike McCarthy, although I never called any other head coach or anything like that,” Ryan continued.
“The reason is because I want to stand on this stage.” [at the Super Bowl] If you plan on going back to coaching. I think with this lineup, I think they can stay where they are, and I thought they could upgrade a little bit on offense, special teams and defense, but I think they can be here. That’s why I was interested. ”
He said that most teams “wouldn’t have a chance on me” and that he would only return to the NFL if the “right circumstances” arose.
“If it’s not completely right, I won’t go,” Ryan said.
