King on M&M: Rex will be back with Jets

Sports Illustrated NFL columnist Peter King checked in with Mut & Merloni for his weekly visit and talked about the NFL coaching carousel.

King said Jets coach Rex Ryan -- who is back in the news Friday after being photographed on vacation sporting a creative tattoo that apparently features his wife wearing a Mark Sanchez jersey and nothing else while Tebowing -- will return to New York for at least one more season.

"He'll definitely be back. He's coaching the Jets next year," King said. "[Jets owner] Woody Johnson made it clear: I'm bringing in a new general manager, the general manager and Rex are going to work together for one year, and then we're going to see what happens. I'd anticipate if they have a six- or seven-win season or even eight and go out of the playoffs again that Rex will be looking for a job and the new GM will be looking for a new coach."

Looking at the current vacancies, King said the only really appealing position is the one reportedly filled by Andy Reid on Friday.

"I think that the best coaching situation that was available was the Kansas City Chiefs," King said. "Here's a team that has, to me, some very good defensive players, some very good skill players, needs some help on the offensive line, and they don't have a quarterback. And they've got $20 million in cap room where the vast majority of NFL teams don't have cap money. And they've got the first pick in the draft. Whoever the coach would want at quarterback -- whether it be you want to take a chance with a Matt Flynn or an Alex Smith, or you want to pick a quarterback with your first pick of the second round, you're going to be in pretty good shape.

"So, that would have been my No. 1. Of the ones that are available now, I'm really skeptical about both Philadelphia and Cleveland. I think Philadelphia has misspent a lot of money, and I'm questioning whether Nick Foles, who's not the fastest guy and not the most mobile guy -- he's not a statue, he's not [Drew] Bledsoe. I question whether he's guy that Chip Kelly will want. He may have to go in a different direction.

"Cleveland, it's such a tradition of losing there for so long that you really wonder if you're a coach whether you can change that. If he changes it they'll build a statue for him outside the stadium. I probably would take Philadelphia. But you could talk a coach into either one of those jobs because neither one of them is overwhelmingly better than the other."

Following are more highlights from the interview.

On Bill O'Brien interviewing with two NFL teams before promising to stay at Penn State: "I think Bill O'Brien wanted to be offered a head coaching job in the NFL. I think if he was offered a head coaching job in the NFL in favorable timing for him, that he would have take the job. But the fact is that the two places that he talked to teams, he was not offered the head coaching job. Both of them wanted to talk to other people -- most notably Chip Kelly -- in Cleveland and Philadelphia. 

"I'm a little bit bothered by the idea that he did the noble thing and went back to Penn State. He did the noble thing, I guess, and got a $1.3 million raise and interviewed with two NFL teams. I don't like to make anything what it isn't, and I don't think there was anything noble about it. I don't think there was anything bad about it, but I just don't think there was anything noble about it."

On if Oregon coach Chip Kelly might land an NFL job: "I think he's going to have his choice of at least two teams. Because I believe that both the Eagles and the Cleveland Browns are going to either offer him the job, or one will offer him and he'll take it, and then the other will be left out in the cold. So, I think he's going to have his choice of more than one job."

On former Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, who parted ways with the team Friday: "My gut feeling is he's probably not going to work for a team this year. Who knows, he might, somebody might make him a great offer. But it's hard to imagine anybody asking Scott Pioli to come on and be a general manager coming off a 2-14 season when a lot of people picked the Chiefs -- idiots like me, I guess -- picked the Chiefs to win the division. I think a lot of people view him and his four years that he picked the wrong coach twice -- Todd Haley and Romeo Crennel, neither of them worked out -- and he picked the wrong quarterback [Matt Cassel]. It's going to be hard to sell that to a fan base unless you come in as the second or third guy in somebody's front office, or strictly as a road scout. I kind of think he might take the year off and see what looks good next year."

To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. For more Patriots news, visit the team page at weei.com/patriots.