DANA POINT, CALIF. _ Some who know Rex Ryan well believe that St. Louis was his first choice all along during the NFL’s offseason coaching carousel, not the New York Jets.

We’ll never know for sure. Nor will we ever know how serious the Rams were about Ryan before eventually hiring Steve Spagnuolo as their head coach. But the fact that Jets owner Woody Johnson took the time to travel to Baltimore to interview Ryan, helped convince Ryan that the Jets could be a good fit.

“I had a really nice interview with Billy Devaney,” Ryan said, in reference to the Rams’ general manager. “I thought it was a great interview. I felt very comfortable with Billy and Lawrence McCutcheon.”

McCutcheon, a Rams scouting executive, accompanied Devaney to Baltimore to interview Ryan, while Ryan was busy working as defensive coordinator during the Ravens’ playoff run.

“Those are the only two (Rams) that I met with,” Ryan said Tuesday at the AFC coaches’ breakfast. “So how serious they were, I never met with the owner or anything else. . . .But at the end of the day, the best job for me was the New York Jets.

“And I think it was because I was chosen by the owner. I felt that it wasn’t just the general manager choosing me. I felt Woody Johnson chose me as well, and that was important to me.”

Nonetheless, coaching the Rams would have been intriguing.

“It was tough because my brother (Jim) lives in St. Louis,” Ryan said. “I’m a Midwestern guy and all that. But at the end of the day, what was best for me and my family was that I felt the (Jets) owner believed in me. I think that was important.”

Even though Ryan didn’t end up coaching in St. Louis, but he took a St. Louis coach with him to New York by hiring Rams wide receivers coach Henry Ellard to the same position with the Jets. Ryan said he didn’t know Ellard before hiring him.

“I just knew of his reputation,” he said. “You build a reputation, and a lot of that is based on how your players play. What you see on tape. So that’s what excited me about Henry.”

Ravens running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery, who had worked with Ellard in St. Louis, strongly recommended Ellard to Ryan.

“He just had some great things to say about Henry,” Ryan said. “And when Henry came in (for his interview), he didn’t disappoint. Clearly he was an outstanding coach, and it’s going to be a huge thing for us to get Henry.”