Rex Ryan Talks About the Final Preseason Game

Aug 28, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan smiles on the sidelines during a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles won 37-7. Mandatory Credit: Derik Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

The preseason did not end on a high note for the New York Jets. Like we all know, the score doesn’t matter, but they lose to the Eagles by a score of 37-7. The Jets did very little on offense, and the defense was carved up like a Thanksgiving day turkey. Most of the game was not a pretty sight.

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But it wasn’t all bad. With final cuts looming, some players did play well. Some did play well enough for coach Rex Ryan to take notice. He talked about those players yesterday when he met with the media:

Well, I like the way (Trevor) Reilly played. This guy played like 100 snaps. He’s playing out of position. In the game we played him basically as a defensive end. That last preseason game, we go in there with like four calls on defense. For instance, we had a Rocky defense, a cheesesteak defense, everything specific for just the game, to get through the game. We played the whole game in nickel because that was the players we had up. We never had Troy Davis. We never had IK (Ikemefuna Enemkpali). We never had, really, any outside linebackers so we basically made Reilly a defensive end. But that’s what we had. We only had three linebackers up and Nick Bellore gets hurt in the first quarter, so it was tough sledding without question. And then the same thing offensively. But we got through it. I appreciated him. I appreciated some of the guys who were out there. We have big (T.J.) Barnes out there. He played like 65 plays. He’s a 360-pound man. That’s probably a little more than maybe we were hoping for. But again, you only have four defensive linemen up for the game. That’s kind of where we are. But again, I saw Reilly step up. I saw a couple guys. The guys were playing hard. I liked the way Dalton Freeman handled the center position. I thought he did a good job communicating. I also thought he did a good job (and) became more physical and that was good to see as well. But really, did anybody have a breakout game like a Calvin Pryor did his first game? I wouldn’t say so, but there were some guys that did a decent job for us.

Coach Ryan is going to be tight-lipped at this point. There are no more leaks, thanks to the John Idzik administration, so we will find out who the cuts are when the time comes.

By the end of the day, we will know who has made the final 53 man roster. It’s a big day for a lot of fringe NFL players. We wish them all luck as the day winds up and they hear their respective fates.