Ryan: 'I took the guy who will knock your face in'

New York Jets coach Rex Ryan spent about 10 minutes on Wednesday morning speaking with media members covering the Green Bay Packers. Here are some quick highlights from the always-quotable Ryan.

On why the Jets drafted safety Calvin Pryor over Ha Ha Clinton-Dix:

"Both guys were excellent players. We would have been happy with either guy. But I took the guy who will knock your face in."

On what he liked about Clinton-Dix as a prospect:

"An outstanding player. The guy has center-field ability. I like the way he comes up, supports the run, he's an active player. He's smart, he's tough. I think he has a chance to be a good one."

On how to defend quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense:

"Well, I hope he gets sick. That's the first one. He's the No. 1 quarterback rating in the history of the National Football League so we know he can do all of that. They get a ton of mileage out of those screens or whatever, so we're going to have to do a good job stopping those. He'll check the ball down; he's not afraid to check the ball down. The thing that he kills you with is obviously he's got a big arm and he can make every throw, but he keeps plays alive and that allows them to make big plays down the field. They're third in the league last year in explosive plays and a lot of it's not just by design of the play; it's this guy creating things and Jordy Nelson, in particular, doing a great job of finding – it seems like he always finds Jordy Nelson when he breaks contain on you. They've got an excellent corps of receivers, a couple real good running backs and then, obviously, a hard-playing offensive line and a great quarterback."

On whether he'll try to exploit the Packers' inexperience on the offensive line:

"No, we're not going to try to exploit it. No, of course. If you think you have a mismatch in your favor, you're obviously going to play to your strengths. The center I thought played really well. In fact, he probably played better than the other kid last year. So we'll see. Obviously, again, we're not feeling sorry for anybody. We've had a few of those issues ourselves. Last year, nobody felt sorry for us. We had seven new starters on offense and seven new starters on defense. So again, who cares? That's part of the game. Injuries happen. We know one thing: whoever's out there for us is going to play to the best of their ability and that's all we care about."

On whether the Jets' running game matches up well against the Packers' defense:

"I guess we're going to find out soon enough. Obviously, Seattle, they've got it going there pretty good. They've got a quarterback, Russell Wilson, and then you've got a couple of backs with Lynch, in particular. They're going to run the ball against a lot of teams, especially at their place. Again, we'll see. That's why you play the games. We feel pretty good about our running game. We think we have three very capable running backs, and Geno Smith is starting to learn how to run with the football, as well."

On how the NFL handled the Ray Rice situation:

"I think the NFL is just a part of society. But again, unfortunately domestic violence is a part of our society, a bad part of our society. I think the NFL has done a great job of taking the appropriate strides to having people aware of it, having our league aware of it where things aren't unacceptable. We're taking steps in the right direction that way."

-- rwood@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @ByRyanWood