NFL

Jets set to use Tebow’s Wildcat in opener against Bills

The Jets are ready to let the Wildcat out of its cage.

Coach Rex Ryan confirmed yesterday the Jets will use the Tim Tebow-directed offense in Sunday’s season opener with the Bills at MetLife Stadium.

“I think we’re all excited to see some Wildcat plays,” Ryan said.

Since the Jets acquired Tebow from Denver in March, the talk has been non-stop about how the Jets will use the quarterback. The Jets have shown none of the special Tebow plays in the preseason and have practiced in front of the media only a few times.

UPDATES FROM OUR JETS BLOG

All of the secrecy has only fueled the interest in just what the Jets will do with Tebow.

“I understand where it’s come from,” Ryan said of the interest. “Tim, forget just being a popular football player, he’s a popular person. I can understand that there’s a lot of interest there. But it’s kind of funny, really. We’re just trying to field a good football team any way possible. I said from Day 1, I thought Tim was a good football player.”

Ryan has said repeatedly he feels Tebow gives the Jets an advantage because teams will have to prepare for him regardless of how much they actually use him in a game. The Bills have a bit more of an advantage than most teams in preparation because quarterbacks coach David Lee was the coach who brought the Wildcat formation to the Dolphins when Tony Sparano was the head coach.

The Bills also have Brad Smith, who ran the Wildcat for Ryan’s first two years as Jets coach.

“This team will probably be as prepared to face the Wildcat as any team we face with the fact that David Lee is there,” Ryan said. “They’re going to be prepared. They have Brad Smith, who obviously did a tremendous job for us as a Wildcat quarterback. This team is going to be prepared. We’ll see who out-executes each other.”

The Jets offense is excited to get on the field in general, not necessarily because of finally seeing Tebow.

“We don’t really look at it as anticipation of opening up the Tebow show,” guard Matt Slauson said. “We just want to run what works well. If [the Tebow plays] become some of our staple stuff, great. If not, we know the plays that are going to be very successful for us.”

The Bills players do not sound too worried about Tebow and the Wildcat.

“Anything they’re doing is not new,” Bills linebacker Nick Barnett told Buffalo reporters. “It’s the NFL, and everything’s been done before, and it’ll be done again.

“The things you prepare for are the history. What that offensive coordinator’s done mixed with what [the Jets] did last year. Obviously, there are going to be some new plays they haven’t done, but Tebow has done a lot of those things in Denver. A lot of the things he was successful at in Denver, I’m sure they won’t vacate those.”

The Jets have not revealed exactly how Tebow will be used. It could be in some form of the Wildcat or zone-read option or something completely different.

“Even if they come out in something we’ve never seen, you’re automatically thinking it’s going to be a run,” Bills cornerback Terrence McGee said.

“They really didn’t show any of it in preseason. So you just kind of assume. There are only certain things you can do with the Wildcat anyway. You just go out with an idea of what they were doing in Miami and what they did in Denver and then adjust to what we see.”

brian.costello@nypost.com