Rex Ryan had one complaint after his first practice as head coach of the Jets yesterday — the team didn’t have enough fun.
“The one thing I told them, the only negative thing I really saw out there, is we had fun, but we need to have more fun out there,” Ryan said. “Guys flying around and just enjoying the competition with each other.”
It’s doubtful the Jets ever heard that complaint from former coach Eric Mangini, who was slightly stiffer than a corpse.
The Jets began a three-day minicamp yesterday with two spirited practices. The field was filled with trash talk and laughter, something not heard in a long time around the Jets.
Linebacker Bart Scott, who came to the Jets with Ryan from Baltimore, was the loudest trash-talker on the field and afterward said the Jets need to be “swagger-licious.”
“I don’t know how the situation and the atmosphere was before,” Scott said. “But whatever you are, you can let it out. You can be you. We’re not going to tell you not to be you. Being you is what got you here. All the success you’ve had got to you this point. It’s too late to change.”
The change was dramatic for those who were here under Mangini.
“Just to be plain and simple, before practice was more uptight,” converted tight end Kareem Brown said. “It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t loose. It was more like, ‘Man, we’ve got to get this done.’ It wasn’t a mindset of us going out there and just playing football like college and high school and just having fun.”
Ryan said he liked what he saw after the first practice yesterday. He believes the talent is there, now he’s working on the attitude he wants the Jets to have.
“This is a good football team so we expect to win and I think our tempo in practice and all that should be reflective of that,” Ryan said. “We’re going to let our pads do our talking, you’ll see, and those opponents will see. But we want to have fun and we want to be ourselves. If a young man likes to go out there and talk and express himself that way, then so be it.”
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ESPN reported the Jets contacted the Cardinals about trading for WR Anquan Boldin. Ryan refused to comment on the team’s interest. . . . RB Thomas Jones and QB Erik Ainge were no-shows. Ryan said Ainge has a personal issue to tend to. Jones is believed to be unhappy over his contract.