Embracing This Whole Offense Thing

Associated Press

Jets head coach Rex Ryan addresses his team during the first day of mini-camp on Tuesday.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J.—Since January, when the Jets failed to make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, coach Rex Ryan has preached how he'd be less brash and outspoken in 2012. And for the most part he has been.

There is one area, though, in which he's developed a new-found swagger: The offense.

"We'll be in practice, and you'll hear him shouting out the offensive plays, we're running. 'Oh, that's an Empty-Right 72 Green!'" running back Joe McKnight said, mimicking Ryan's voice. "It's hilarious. It's almost like he's been quizzing himself to see if he can figure out what we're doing in terms of the formation."

Ryan has long been recognized as one of the league's premier defensive masterminds, but in previous seasons he was admittedly lost when it came to the other side of the ball. The lack of offensive knowledge was glaring at times last season, particularly when he didn't initially notice that No. 1 receiver Santonio Holmes had been benched mid-drive by an offensive coach during the team's season finale, or that quarterback Mark Sanchez had dropped back to pass almost 70 times in a pivotal game against the Giants.

But as players opened minicamp Tuesday, several said they've seen their leg-tattooed leader morph into a geeky general of sorts, flaunting his new-found offensive know-how everywhere he can. Some say he's been over the top—even for Rex —about displaying showing off his new smarts.

"A bunch of us are in the weight room lifting the other day, and Rex comes up smiling, saying, 'Oh, man; what do you all think of the new 136 [pass-protection scheme]?'" right guard Brandon Moore said smiling. "And we're looking at him like, 'It's still the same plays as last year, Rex; just with different names.' But it's good, because you can tell he's really studied up in that sense."

In a way, Ryan is a rookie to all the offensive ins and outs. He was most comfortable sticking to what he knew during his first two seasons as coach, usually deferring to then-offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer when it came to offense. Ryan did eventually speak up at the end of last season, though—he prompted Schottenheimer, in Week 17, to run a Wildcat play that went for 41 yards—acknowledging the verbiage in Schottenheimer's offense was "a little much" to understand.

To counter that, he received advanced tutoring from new coordinator Tony Sparano shortly after hiring the former Dolphins coach. For an hour each day in January, Ryan listened to Sparano talk about his schemes to develop a better grasp of how the offense was supposed to work. "What would start out as an hour would turn into an hour and forty-five minutes. It gave me a chance to get him up to speed," Sparano said.

That knowledge has helped Ryan follow through on an off-season promise to stay more in tune with his players—even if it's simply to bark at them. "He's way more hands-on than he ever was. He's literally coming into offensive meeting rooms and telling people, 'OK, if this is our play, and how it works, why can't you line up [correctly]?'" said quarterback Greg McElroy. "It's like, 'Oh my gosh, Rex actually knows what we're doing all the time now.'"

The coach has been present for most offensive-team meetings this offseason, typically sitting in the back of the room, with the veteran offensive linemen (Moore, center Nick Mangold and left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson). He's always on time for Sparano's offensive meetings, but usually bounces around from position meeting to position meeting, staying for just a few minutes of each one. Sometimes he opts to stand in some of the meetings, so he can leave for the next one without making much noise.

Unless, of course, he's giving his two cents on something. "When Rex is anywhere—even a silent auction, probably—he's gonna be speaking up," receiver Jeremy Kerley said, adding that the coach has helped offensive players identify defensive schemes in meetings. "He's definitely been more active and attentive in the meeting rooms."

A version of this article appeared June 13, 2012, on page A24 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Embracing This Whole Offense Thing.

Rex Ryan, Tony Sparano, Brian Schottenheimer, Santonio Holmes

Online.wsj.com