Rex Ryan nearly joined Giants coaching staff in ultimate Jets betrayal

Former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan has been very open about his desire to return to the coaching world in recent years. He's had brief discussions with a number of teams, most recently the Jets last offseason, but nothing has come to fruition to this point.

One year after — some might say ceremoniously — interviewing for the Jets' head coach job, Ryan apparently had lengthy conversations about joining the other East Rutherford-based team's coaching staff.

In an interview with The Athletic’s Ian O’Connor, New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh revealed that he spoke with Ryan “at length” about the longtime Jets coach potentially taking on the team’s defensive coordinator role.

"Rex is a guy I love and have a lot of respect for," Harbaugh said. In the end, the Giants ultimately hired another former Jets and Ravens assistant, Dennard Wilson, in the role, but it sounds like Ryan was a legitimate candidate.

Rex Ryan almost returned to the NFL to coach on John Harbaugh's Giants staff

Ryan's last stint in the NFL came nearly a decade ago as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills from 2015 to 2016. He coached the Bills to a 15-16 record over two years before he was fired before the final game of the 2016 season.

Since then, Ryan has built a prominent media career as an ESPN analyst while occasionally flirting with a return to the NFL. His name has surfaced in various coaching rumors over the years, and he’s interviewed for multiple jobs, but nothing has materialized beyond exploratory conversations.

Ryan has maintained some connections around the league, interviewing for the Denver Broncos' defensive coordinator job under Sean Payton in 2023 and the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator job under Mike McCarthy the following year.

That's why it shouldn't be seen as a major surprise that he had conversations with another longtime NFL coach in Harbaugh, especially given that the two worked together for a year in Baltimore some 18 years ago. Both coaches have deep ties to the Ravens organization.

The Jets recently hired Ryan’s son, Seth, as the team’s new passing game coordinator under offensive coordinator Frank Reich. It would have been a bizarre but undeniably fun subplot to see Rex end up with the Giants in the same offseason.

Jets fans likely would have felt a certain sting seeing one of the most defining figures in franchise history end up on the sideline of their crosstown rivals. Thankfully for them, that scenario never came to pass, and Rex Ryan will remain a Jets figure, not a Giants one.