it public that all the game-calling responsibilities would be Pettine’s. These had all been Ryan’s privileges as the Ravens defensive coordinator, and he wanted to treat Pettine with the same consideration and trust Ravens head coach Brian Billick had given Ryan.

This generosity to a subordinate spoke to another aspect of Ryan’s grand ambitions. Not only would the Jets win one Super Bowl, and maybe more, but his coaching staff would go off into the football world and become coordinators and head coaches themselves. Pettine, Ryan believed, would be an excellent NFL head coach, and he thought the same of offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Such was his faith in the abilities of his staff that on some days, Ryan would name the Jets coaches for whom he predicted leadingfutures: Thurman, Carrier, and, down the road, Smitty and the special-teams assistant Ben Kotwica. The offensive-line coach Bill Callahan, who had been an NFL head coach with the Raiders, would rise again. By the time Ryan reached the end of his list, he’d named nearly everybody who had a coaching office in Florham Park. Unlike most head coaches, Ryan allowed his assistants to speak with the press. He thought it necessary for their futures that they possess such skills. At the Combine, he said that he expected to “will a championship” from his players, and he had similar confidence about the eventual growth of the Ryan “coaching tree.”

The defensive coaches all were very fond of Ryan. They admired the way he’d earned his stripes in the business, spending