NFL

THE FIX IS IN: Tim Tebow will start at QB for Jets soon

Quarterback Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow (
)

Woody Johnson was on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” yesterday squawking about Tim Tebow, and you got the feeling if Tebow ever needed a personal punt protector, the owner would be at the front of the line frantically waving his hand to volunteer for the job.

“Are we going to keep Tebow? Absolutely,” Johnson said. “He’ll be with us for three years. … I think he’s going to be a real valuable asset in terms of helping us win games.”

As complimentary as he was, the owner never did get around to guaranteeing Mark Sanchez will be with the Jets through the end of the 2014 season.

And that is all any conspiracy theorist needs to reach this conclusion: The fix is in.

Sanchez is the quarterback of the Jets — until he isn’t.

Until the losses keep mounting. Until the team is in desperate need of a spark or shakeup. Until the owner can’t sell enough tickets and the public and internal pressure on coach Rex Ryan becomes an almighty Tebow tidal wave.

“[Ryan] has faith in me, I believe that,” Sanchez said. “I’m not worried about that, I’m really not.”

The question is how much faith does the antsy owner have in Sanchez? When Johnson was asked if the Jets would never bench Sanchez, he said: “Never is a long time period, but I see the same things in Mark Sanchez [as] when I first met him. He’s still a young quarterback. … [Quarterback] is probably the most difficult position athletically and mentally that there is in all of sports.”

But the young quarterback has an appalling 48.4 completion percentage. Johnson insists his public vote of confidence for Sanchez, if you can call it that, is a motivational ploy.

“It’s not bolstering his confidence,” Johnson said. “We think he’s that good. … He really is that good. I wouldn’t look at the numbers too seriously. … A quarterback’s job ultimately is to win games. Mark Sanchez has proven that he can do that. He pulled out a game a few weeks ago in the last couple minutes when we played Miami.”

Asked if he sees any reason he should not be the quarterback for the rest of the year, Sanchez said: “No.”

But why won’t Ryan announce definitively that his former Golden Boy is the starter for the rest of this season?

“I’m telling you right now he’s our starting quarterback this week barring injury, and things happen,” Ryan said.

This week. Things happen.

It was pointed out to Ryan that he will be forced to answer quarterback questions every week with this approach.

“I got no problem answering questions each week,” Ryan said.

But when you say, “He’s our starter this week,” you open up Pandora’s box. Not to mention Johnson’s box.

“Well he’s our starter, what do you want me to say?” Ryan said. “He’s our starter. I put it he’s our starter this week, he’s our starter. … You can go answer A and answer B and come up with C, I guess.”

C-ebow.

“When we traded for Tim, we understand his contract situation,” Ryan said. The Broncos trade up to draft him in the first round, then dealt him away after two seasons. “We brought him in because we think Tim’s a good football player. With that being said — and this goes for any player — Tim, any player we have, we assume that they’re gonna be with us. We think the guy’s gonna be with us throughout the length of the contract, but there’s no guarantee there that if there’s an opportunity to help our football team, if we see fit, whatever’s in the best interests of our team, then I guess no player is totally guaranteed that they’ll be there.”

I guess no player except for Tebow.

“That means a lot, especially to have that support, especially from an owner,” Tebow said. “You always want support from the top, so definitely it’s encouraging.”

Do not believe for one second of Tebow Time that the lion inside him would be content from here to Jets eternity in his current role.

“I’m loving being here, and we’ll just take it one step at a time,” Tebow said.

Sanchez needs a big game, and now. He needs to rise above the rubble that surrounds him — no Ground & Pound, no Santonio Holmes. “We just gotta win games,” he said.

Andrew Luck has looked like a fourth-year quarterback, which means it would be a good idea Sunday against the Colts for Sanchez to start looking like a fourth-year quarterback.

“Luck … is a pretty good quarterback for being a rookie,” Johnson said. Remember this: It was Johnson who said, “I think you can never have too much Tebow.”

No one has heard him say, “I think you can never have enough Sanchez.”

steve.serby@nypost.com