NFL: Pettine excited to work on Jets' D with Ryan
By DENNIS WASZAK Jr.
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Mad Scientist brought his lab partner along with him.
Shortly after becoming coach of the New York Jets on Monday, Rex Ryan made sure Mike Pettine came with him as his defensive coordinator. Pettine was on Baltimore's staff as a defensive assistant for seven years, including the last four as the Ravens' outside linebackers coach.
"He and I were just kind of drawn to each other right from the beginning," Pettine said in an introductory conference call today. "We joke with each other that we don't know if we could survive without each other."
Ryan, nicknamed "The Mad Scientist" for his aggressive and unpredictable game plans as Baltimore's defensive coordinator, had high praise for Pettine — PET-tin — in his news conference Wednesday. The two will work together again, trying to improve a defense that ranked 16th overall last season, but 29th against the pass.
"To steal a clich De, the cupboard isn't bare," the 42-year-old Pettine said. "There's definitely some things to work with. Between free agency and the draft, I feel confident that we'll put a pretty good defense on the field."
Pettine and Ryan will bring a playmaking, high-energy style of defense to the Jets, but will let the players they have determine the overall style of the unit. That's a departure from the inflexible approach taken the last three years by Eric Mangini.
"One thing about our system is it's player-driven," Pettine said. "We've always been of the mind-set of you fit your system to the players, not the players to the system. We're not going to come in with the playbook and say we're squeezing the New York Jets' personnel into the Baltimore Ravens' playbook."
Pettine replaces Bob Sutton, who could be reassigned within the organization.
Pettine said Baltimore ran a base 3-4 defense, but refused to label it as such because of the frequent movement and rearranging of linebackers. He'll institute a similar philosophy with the Jets.
"We ended up being really more of a 3›-3›," he said. "When people say we're in a 3-4, we always laughed about that."
Pettine inherits a defense that had a promising start in 2008 with 29 sacks in its first eight games, but just 12 in the last half of the season. The secondary might also need a makeover, ranking 29th overall against the pass despite having Pro Bowl cornerback Darrelle Revis and established playmaking safety Kerry Rhodes.
The run defense, which ranked seventh overall, didn't allow a 100-yard rusher through its first 11 games. But nose tackle Kris Jenkins played through a herniated disk and New York allowed three players to go over 100 yards in the last five games.
Pettine also echoed Ryan's thoughts from a day earlier on working with outside linebacker Vernon Gholston, who had a disappointing rookie season.
"If the guy's got it in him, we're going to get it out of him," Pettine said. "I think a big thing with him is trying to get him some confidence early."
Pettine's path to the NFL was unique. He spent five seasons as an assistant under his father, Mike, who retired recently as the winningest coach in Pennsylvania high school history. Pettine was a defensive graduate assistant for two seasons at the University of Pittsburgh for Johnny Majors before following in his father's footsteps and coaching high school football for seven years.
"Whether it was real or perceived, I always felt I had something to prove, being someone who didn't take the traditional path," Pettine said.
He got his big break in 2002 with the Ravens as a video assistant before working his way up to outside linebackers coach under Ryan — and now as a defensive coordinator with the Jets.
"It's a challenge I've been looking forward to for a long time," Pettine said.
