Rex Ryan: 'No Chance' I Wish Ex-Jets Veteran Shaun Ellis Well With Patriots
NEW YORK (WFAN) -- Shaun Ellis, after 11 seasons with the Jets, is headed -- gasp! -- to the rival New England Patriots.
"The fact that he chose them and all that, like I said before, there's no way I'm going to wish him well," Jets coach Rex Ryan said on Sunday. "There's no chance of that."
When Patriots head coach Bill Belichick bolted for New England in early 2000, the Patriots gave New York a first-round pick in that year's NFL draft. In that slot, the Jets selected Ellis.
"I wish him to be healthy," said Ryan, "but I don't want him to play that well."
Now it's up to 2011 first-round pick Muhammad Wilkerson and another Ellis -- Kenrick Ellis -- to pick up the slack rushing passers for the Jets.
Ellis reportedly wanted to return to New York, but there wasn't much room left under the cap after general manager Mike Tannenbaum awarded contracts to Santonio Holmes, Antonio Cromartie, Plaxico Burress, Derrick Mason and others.
"You only have so much," explained Ryan. "You got a piece of that pie and once it gets down to it, we're pretty much down to it. Bringing in Derrick, it's hard for me to see that we'll be bringing in too many more people."
Now Ellis will bring his 72.5 career sacks in 157 starts to New England. He had 4.5 sacks in 2010.
"Be careful, you don't want to fight Shaun," Rex said. "He's one of the toughest guys I've ever been around. He is a tough guy and he's going to be missed."
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