"My first thought," Ryan said Wednesday, "was I looked and I saw who was second [Patriots head coach Bill Belichick] and I was like, 'Hey, I finally beat Belichick at something. I got him. I knew it would take time, but I got him.' Golly, like it hasn't been a tough enough year."
The poll came out Monday and attracted a lot of attention as the Jets (3-5) gear up for the Seattle Seahawks. Ryan claims being painted in a negative light by the 103-player poll doesn't really bother him.
"The next question is well, where was I rated ?" said Ryan. "If I was rated really high ... if you're rated down at whatever level and you're still overrated that would really bother me. I wasn't offended by it."
Ryan joined a couple of Jets players who were recently tagged with the same overrated labels. Quarterbacks Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez were recently named the No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, most overrated NFL players in a Sports Illustrated poll.
The high-profile Ryan lumps himself in with other players' coaches and believes most guys will still line up to play for him.
"I think if you poll the same players about who they want to play for I'll probably end up where I always am — right at the top with [Steelers coach Mike] Tomlin," Ryan said. "It's either me or Mike Tomlin that's 1 or 2 guys want to play for. I don't think that will change. As long as they want to come here and play and I'm overrated, that's fine."
The negative publicity did nothing to lessen Ryan's huge ego.
"At the end of the year, we'll see who's overrated," he said.
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