The bombast was gone weeks ago. Fiery Rex Ryan has turned resigned. The New York Jets coach walked into his postgame press conference looking sad, shaken, and sapped from a miserable season.
"A devastating loss," Ryan said after New York's embarrassing 14-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans. "It hurts beyond belief. The thing that hurts the most (is) no one to blame but ourselves."
Mark Sanchez's complete meltdown Monday night and throughout the second half of this season did the Jets a favor. After four interceptions and a game-losing fumble in Tennessee, there's just no way the Jets could go back to Sanchez next season. It doesn't matter how much guaranteed money Sanchez has coming to him; it's not worth paying him.
"I'm not ready to say who will be our quarterback next week," Ryan said.
It's time; we'd be surprised if Sanchez keeps his job. Sanchez has regressed. He's turned into a classic case of a first-round draft pick that has taken too hard of a mental beating to go on. He's David Carr with the Houston Texans. Sanchez is begging to be benched.
"For that last play to happen, it's about as bad as it gets," Ryan said.
This was the end of the 2012 Jets. Ryan hopes to be back next year, and we suspect he will. But this initial era of Ryan-led prosperity in New York is over. Ryan was asked to describe what it was like to miss the playoffs for a second straight season.
"I could, but its probably not appropriate," he said.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
