Players face their former teams every week in the NFL, but no one might have a more unusual reunion than Colts backup quarterback Drew Stanton this week with the Jets.
You may not remember Stanton’s Jets career, because it lasted all of a week. Stanton was the odd man out when the Jets traded for Tim Tebow in March, just five days after he signed with the team to be Mark Sanchez’s backup.
Two days after acquiring Tebow, the Jets traded Stanton to the Colts, who face the Jets on Sunday.
“[I was] completely blindsided,” Stanton said in a phone interview yesterday. “I sat in the office with [Jets general manager Mike] Tannenbaum and Rex [Ryan] and they told me, ‘If you sign here we’re completely done with quarterbacks. We have Sanchez as the starter, you’re the backup and we also have [Greg] McElroy.’ They said, ‘If you sign, we’re set at that position.’ That’s what really sold me and made me not take those visits and I even took less money to sign there.”
Stanton signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract to back up Sanchez on Friday, March 16. He returned home to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and was in a movie theater four days later when his agent texted him there were reports the Jets were interested in trading for Tebow.
Stanton said his agent told him it could just be rumors. On March 21, he woke up and worked out as usual. That afternoon the reports came in the Jets had traded for Tebow, then the trade was held up because of a contract issue.
“I was sitting there in limbo, not really knowing what’s going to happen,” Stanton said.
He called Jets quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh, with whom he had clicked with a week earlier. Cavanaugh told him he could not say much because he was unsure exactly what was going on. He tried to reach Tannenbaum, who was in the middle of negotiating with the Broncos.
“It was a tumultuous time because I was looking for answers but no one could give them to me for that entire day,” Stanton said.
Late that night, Stanton was visiting a friend in the hospital who had just given birth. Tannenbaum called him to tell him the trade had been completed. Stanton said he wanted to be traded and gave the Jets a list of teams.
Stanton said Tannenbaum told him they never foresaw the Tebow trade happening when they negotiated with him and felt they had done wrong by him but would make it right.
“I think they definitely did that,” Stanton, who holds no ill will toward the Jets, said.
Two days later, one week after he signed with the Jets, he was shipped to the Colts for a draft pick.
If Stanton had been Sanchez’s backup, there probably would not be any discussion this week of whether Sanchez should be benched. Stanton said he has watched the Tebow drama play out in New York, but has not been particularly interested.
On Sunday, he hopes to shake hands with a few Jets coaches and executives who recruited him in March.
“I just look at it as a learning experience,” Stanton said. “I thought I was in control of what was going on. I was told something and it changed quickly. That’s the way this league is.”