Schottenheimer Says He's Ready to Move Forward

The Jets beat reporters had a chance to visit with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer via a telephone conference call earlier today.

Schottenheimer was quite relaxed and candid about everything that has transpired with the team over the past few weeks. He admitted to being very disappointed that the team passed him over for the head coaching job in favor of Rex Ryan, but also indicated that he is completely at peace with everything and that he and Ryan had a good heart-to-heart and he's ready to move forward. If anybody knows what Schottenheimer is feeling it's Ryan who went through the exact same thing last year when he lost out to John Harbaugh for the Ravens head coaching position.

As I discussed previously, Schottenheimer and Ryan were both raised under similar circumstances with both having fathers who were NFL coaches. Together with the fact that Ryan is not a micro-manager in any way, this could be a really good match.

As for the question of the hour (Brett Favre for those of you just joining us), Schottenheimer hasn't spoken to him since the end of the season, but he did say,"I'd welcome the opportunity to coach Brett Favre again." So, we all sit and wait for Favre to come out of the woods in Louisiana where he has apparently still off hunting things and let us know his decision.

Schottenheimer said some positive and supportive things about the other two Jets quarterbacks, Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff, but nothing that would qualify as a ringing endorsement. Here are a couple of excerpts:

Regarding Clemens: "When Kellen got the chance to play two years ago he did a lot of good things and I think it takes a quarterback a little while to truly come into his own."

Regarding Ratliff: "I know Brett played really well in the preseason. I don't think that should be looked at in a negative way because he was playing against some good players, but he was also playing with people of the same skill set."

As far as questions with players at other positions Schottenheimer didn't have anything concrete to offer, which was not a surprise given the time of year and nobody is going to show their hand with the impending free agency period.