[Note: I’m scheduled to appear on The Bobby Curran Show on ESPN 1420 at just after 2:00 today. If you’re interested, you can listen here.]

Rex Ryan is the Tim Tebow of coaches: whatever he says tends to get magnified. I was sitting a few feet from Ryan when he made his latest controversial comment. Keyshawn Johnson asked Ryan if having a former head coach in Tony Sparano now coaching the offense would allow him to focus more on the defense. Ryan said it would, although Ryan previously vowed to also be more involved with the offense. The next question asked about Ryan’s confidence, and he said he had a lot of confidence in himself and his coaching staff. He went on:

Now, I wasn’t even in the defensive meeting last night, but I have complete faith and trust in the coaches we have. As I said, it’s easy for me to say I’m the best defensive coach in football. Now that’s saying something, because Dick LeBeau’s pretty (darn) good, Bill Belichick is pretty good. But that’s the way I’ve always believed. And you know what, I believe it because of the guys I coach with, there’s no doubt about that, and the guys that I’ve coached. That’s the truth, and that’s how I feel. I’m going to be more involved over there, calling games or whatever. Obviously, Mike Pettine, that’s my right hand guy, he’s always been my right hand guy and that’s the way it’s always going to be.

Not that inflammatory, is it? In any event, Ryan also issued a call to the media on Saturday, and if you’ve ever read this blog, you know he got my attention with what he said:

I’m still waiting to see somebody put the stats up there, because I know I’m crazy, but go ahead and just put them out there one day, since I’ve been a coordinator and head coach, I dunno where I’d rank…I really don’t even know the answer…Now watch Dick LeBeau get me.

Well, Rex, I’ll put the stats out there for you. Presumably we want to compare Ryan to all current head coaches (with defensive backgrounds) and defensive coordinators in the league. There are only 25 defensive coordinators to examine, as sevens teams do not have coordinators with any relevant track record. Both Missouri teams are actually without defensive coordinators this year: In Kansas City, Romeo Crennel will be head coach and defensive coordinator, while in St. Louis, the Rams are going with a committee approach to replace the suspended Gregg Williams. In addition, five men will be first-time defensive coordinators in 2012: Matt Patricia in New England, Kevin Coyle in Miami, Alan Williams in Minnesota, Jason Tarver in Oakland and John Pagano in San Diego.

Of the 32 head coaches, 18 of them have defensive backgrounds. Add that to the 25 defensive coordinators, and removing the three coaches with no relevant experience since 2005 ^[1]The three are Greg Schiano (never a DC or HC at the NFL level), Joe Vitt (only top role during that time frame was as an interim head coach in 2005), and Dave Wannstedt (last top NFL role was as head … Continue reading, and we have our population of coaches. So where does Ryan rank among the top 40 defensive minds in the NFL? There are many ways to rank a defense, and no individual metric is perfect. So instead of picking just one, I’ll list a number of defensive categories and let you decide which you like. As a hat tip to Ryan, I’ll sort the list by the one category where he does lead: first downs allowed. But the table is fully sortable, so have at it.

The categories listed are points allowed per game, total yards allowed, first downs allowed, net yards per attempt allowed, adjusted net yards per attempt allowed, yards per carry allowed, rushing yards allowed, total rushing and passing touchdowns allowed, and turnovers forced.

Coach	2012 Tm	2012 Role	# Sea	PA/G	YDS	1Ds	NY/A	ANY/A	YPC	RSH YD	TDs	TOs
Rex Ryan	NYJ	HC	7	18.1	4496	254	5.52	4.65	3.52	1455	27.1	30.7
Mike Pettine	NYJ	DC	3	18.8	4565	260	5.39	4.63	3.75	1603	28.7	30.7
Mike Tomlin	PIT	HC	6	16.7	4420	262	5.22	4.59	3.5	1291	23.7	27
Dick LeBeau	PIT	DC	7	16.5	4438	263	5.22	4.62	3.58	1364	24.7	26.4
John Harbaugh	BAL	HC	4	16.3	4677	265	5.56	4.54	3.61	1445	23.5	29.8
Chuck Pagano	IND	HC	1	16.6	4622	269	5.39	4.61	3.54	1482	21	26
Dean Pees	BAL	DC	4	17.3	4848	275	5.89	5.18	4.21	1642	29.3	29
Ron Rivera	CAR	HC	5	19.1	4967	280	5.73	4.98	4.09	1741	31	30
Jack Del Rio	DEN	DC	7	20.9	5158	285	6.44	5.89	4.01	1708	35	24.3
Mike Smith	ATL	HC	7	19.1	5146	287	6.06	5.38	4.17	1682	31.9	26.9
Leslie Frazier	MIN	HC	5	21.9	5142	288	6.2	6.11	3.63	1431	32.8	25.8
Mike Zimmer	CIN	DC	7	21.8	5153	288	6.12	5.68	4.07	1776	35.1	26
Lovie Smith	CHI	HC	7	19.3	5184	289	5.73	4.89	3.93	1671	31.4	33.9
Juan Castillo	PHI	DC	1	20.5	5198	289	5.98	5.74	4.35	1801	38	24
Wade Phillips	HOU	DC	7	20.3	4951	291	5.69	5.31	4.03	1557	31.9	25.3
John Fox	DEN	HC	7	20.9	5130	294	5.86	5.27	4.02	1841	32.4	29
Greg Manusky	IND	DC	5	21.9	5353	298	6.34	5.98	3.8	1732	33.2	23.2
Steve Spagnuolo	NOR	DC	5	22.7	5328	301	6.19	5.89	4.29	1908	35.8	22.2
Mel Tucker	JAX	DC	4	23.1	5575	302	6.98	6.41	4.27	1977	39.3	25.5
Marvin Lewis	CIN	HC	7	21.8	5297	302	6.23	5.59	4.13	1803	36.4	29.6
Bill Belichick	NWE	HC	7	18.7	5302	303	6.24	5.6	4.19	1679	32.4	29.4
Mike Nolan	ATL	DC	7	22.8	5433	304	6.31	6.03	3.89	1795	35.7	23
Perry Fewell	NYG	DC	6	21.7	5460	304	5.96	5.26	4.45	2042	34.8	29.8
Romeo Crennel	KAN	HC	6	21.4	5443	305	6.24	5.53	4.35	2142	34.5	26.2
Dick Jauron	CLE	DC	6	20.7	5370	305	5.92	5.2	4.45	2182	32.2	26.7
Dom Capers	GNB	DC	6	21.3	5334	306	6.26	5.66	4.25	1890	35.8	29.2
Rob Ryan	DAL	DC	7	22.8	5487	306	6.42	5.93	4.33	2150	36.6	23.4
Jim Schwartz	DET	HC	7	23.2	5434	306	6.11	5.76	4.35	1894	39.3	28.4
Vic Fangio	SFO	DC	2	20.6	5378	308	6.45	6.11	4.03	1770	34	27
Jeff Fisher	STL	HC	6	21.8	5354	308	5.96	5.47	4.11	1792	37	27.5
Bill Sheridan	TAM	DC	1	26.7	5198	308	6.46	6.53	4.19	1773	52	24
Jim Haslett	WAS	DC	6	25.3	5571	309	6.65	6.28	4.52	2119	40	25.3
Gus Bradley	SEA	DC	3	23.2	5638	309	6.37	6.03	4.05	1825	38.7	25.3
Sean McDermott	CAR	DC	3	23.8	5471	311	6.39	5.79	4.29	1845	42.3	32
Pete Carroll	SEA	HC	2	22.6	5606	312	6.26	5.78	4	1850	36	26.5
Gunther Cunningham	DET	DC	7	23.8	5652	313	6.45	6.12	4.51	2029	38.9	28.3
Dennis Allen	OAK	HC	1	24.4	5725	315	6.44	6.57	4.14	2021	35	18
Rod Marinelli	CHI	DC	5	24.8	5736	321	6.55	6.26	4.25	1932	41.4	30.2
Ray Horton	ARI	DC	1	21.8	5682	333	5.96	5.78	4.18	1986	32	19
Jerry Gray	TEN	DC	2	21.4	5589	334	5.97	5.56	4.48	2129	36	26.5

All of these metrics have some validity ^[2]But it should be obvious that any ranking system like this has many flaws. Not all coaches are working with the same talent, and it’s impossible to fairly compare a coach with one year of … Continue reading. If forced to look at just one stat, I might be inclined to pick the touchdowns allowed category, which ignores defensive and special teams touchdowns. That category eliminates some of the bad parts of points allowed (holding teams to field goals is often considered a “win” for a defense, touchdowns scored when the team’s offense or special teams are on the field are excluded) and from yards allowed (the “bend but don’t break” defenses can fare quite well in this metric). Looking at touchdowns allowed to opposing offenses, Ryan’s teams come in behind the great duos in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Pagano was the Ravens defensive coordinator last year, and obviously Harbaugh has been the team’s head coach since 2009. Tomlin and LeBeau have worked together for six years and Pittsburgh’s defense has been fantastic nearly every season. While Ryan does come in behind them in that category, he generally ranks in the top five in most metrics. And he’s first in first downs allowed, an important measure of defensive performance.

We can say without reservation ^[3]Note: I’ve made sure the information on Ryan, LeBeau and the other top coaches are accurate, but some of the data on coaching affiliations may be inaccurate, so I can’t confirm that this … Continue reading that Rex Ryan has an excellent defensive record. No matter what category you look at, you see coaches with backgrounds in Baltimore or Pittburgh, which should be unsurprising. The Jets have tried to be Baltimore North the last few years, with good success (except when playing the Ravens).

One metric that changes the names up top is turnovers forced, and Lovie Smith ranks first even with a seven-year sample size. If you asked Ryan which statistic he meant when he said his defenses are the best, my guess is he would cite (rightly or wrongly) yards allowed. That’s what Ryan meant when he said argued that he’s never “finished worse than sixth in the league in defense and I don’t think anybody else in the league can say that.” That’s not really true, but it’s close enough. Tomlin’s Steelers have never ranked outside of the top five in yards allowed, but he did rank 8th in 2005 as defensive coordinator of the Vikings. New Indianapolis coach Chuck Pagano was only a defensive coordinator for one year, so maybe Ryan doesn’t consider his third-place ranking in one season as worthy of inclusion.

But if we are examining coaches by just yards allowed, Ryan doesn’t come in at #1 since 2005. Unfortunately for Rex, Tomlin and LeBeau got him.