Rex reacts to 2012 regular-season

If you thought Jets head coach Rex Ryan was pumped after the first day of workouts...

“Yesterday, obviously I was really excited to finally have the team in our building and have a chance to talk to them. But I’m even more excited now," he said in a conference call with reporters shortly after the NFL released the full regular-season schedule. "When that schedule comes out, you start to visualize who you’re playing and all that kind of stuff, it’s even more exciting. Now you realize the 2012 season is upon us.”

“...I know the players get excited, the fans get excited for those primetime games.

"...Obviouly it’s a challenging schedule. We open up the season at home, which is a good thing, but we’re playing Buffalo, that’s a good team. Going through it, we play New England on Thanksgiving at home, so that’s going to be a huge game. It’s a challenging schedule, but we’re really excited to see it and now our players can start visualizing it.”

“First thing you look at is that first oppponent. ...And then you kind of glance through there and you look for the primetime games because those things are the ones that kind of affect your schedule. You look for when the bye is, and this time the bye looks like it’s right in the middle of our schedule, so that’s a good thing. "

“That's definitely a tough stretch, there’s no doubt ... But we’ve got some home games earlier in the season. ...You kind of see that little clump of games there and it’s like 'Whoo! That’s a tough December.' But you’re going into some decent weather ... I kind of like San Diego coming to our place in December. That’s a good thing."

“That’s definitely tough. And you’ve got Buffalo who’s much improved. A big pass-rusher (Mario Williams) coming in. On the road at Pitt, at Miami, which is never easier, especially that time of year. San Francisco, Houston, back-to-back -- two of the more physical teams in the league -- it’s definitely a tough stretch. But fortunutely, traditionally we get out of the blocks pretty good and we’re going to need to. I’m glad we’re going to Cortland this year. I think that’s good for us and we’ve got to be at our best coming out of the blocks.”