Remember Kellen Clemens?
The former Jets quarterback is keeping the Rams season afloat with starter Sam Bradford out for the year with a knee injury, showing how a competent backup — of which there are too few in the NFL — can help keep a team’s season from spiraling to oblivion.
Ask the Packers, who are 0-4-1 since Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone, about the importance of a reliable backup quarterback.
Clemens, who was with the Jets from 2006-10, has not been lighting up the scoreboard with gaudy passing statistics, but he has kept the playoff hopes of the 5-6 Rams — albeit slim — alive by helping them to a 2-2 record entering Sunday’s game in San Francisco.
The Clemens-led Rams are coming off consecutive convincing wins over the Colts (38-8) and Bears (42-21).
For Clemens, 30, this has been a long-time-coming opportunity to him to play regularly, and he’s embracing this part of his career — something he said he never did when he was with the Jets.
“There were some situations that came up during my time in New York where I let the business side of it affect the football side of it,’’ Clemens told The Post this week. “There were moments I wish I would have enjoyed it more, rather than being worried about things that were really out of my control. Those are some of the regrets I had leaving New York that I won’t have now that I’m having the opportunity to be here.
“Whenever my time is over and it strikes midnight for me, I’ll be able walk away with no regrets. I’m really happy with that.’’
When we last saw Clemens with the Jets, he was backing up Mark Sanchez, who was the team’s “franchise’’ quarterback at the time (remember that?). Clemens battled Sanchez in what was termed by the Jets as a “competition’’ for the starting job in 2009, Sanchez’s rookie year. That competition, however, was as fixed as Sanchez versus rookie Geno Smith this summer — which is to say it was a competition in name only.
“The writing was kind of on the wall,’’ Clemens recalled. “It wasn’t really a competition, and we all know that.’’
Clemens’ greatest “regret’’ came when he started in place of an injured Sanchez against the Buccaneers in Tampa, where the Jets won 26-3 in 2009.
“I was on my way out in New York, Mark was the future and there was no arguing that, so the way you look at it as a young player is, ‘Here’s my time to audition to 31 teams and show that I can do it,’ ’’ Clemens recalled. “We won the game, I didn’t turn the ball over and I absolutely did not enjoy it, because I was so worried about big picture.
“You never know when you’re going to be done, and that was my regret coming out of New York. That’s why I’m looking at this opportunity as, ‘Hey I’m enjoying it now and we’ll worry about the other stuff later.’ ’’
When Clemens, who went 4-5 in his nine starts with the Jets, left after the 2010 season, the ensuing offseason was marred by the lockout, which made the free-agent waters even murkier.
He signed with the Redskins right before 2011 training camp and was released on Sept. 3. The Texans signed him on Nov. 23 after Matt Schaub got hurt, then waived clemens on Dec. 6. The Rams claimed him off waivers the next day, reuniting him with his former Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
“This has been kind of fun,’’ Clemens said of his current run with the Rams. “The circumstances aren’t what anyone would want, because I have a lot of respect for Sam having seen how hard he works and how much he wants it.’’
Clemens, always understated and humble, was quick to downplay his role in the Rams’ recent success.
“It’s really not about me,’’ he said, doling out credit to the offensive line, his skill position teammates and the defense. “I’m fortunate to be in the situation I’m in. I’m excited to be here, and I’m trying to enjoy the moments as they come.’’
Clemens completed 9 of 16 passing for 247 yards with two TDs and no INTs in the win over the Colts and was 10-of-22 for 167 yards and a TD and no INTS in the win over the Bears. He actually is two plays away from being 4-0 as the starter this year, considering the Rams came within a last-play pass to the end zone in losses to Seattle (14-9) and Tennessee (28-21) in Weeks 8 and 9, respectively.
This experience has enabled Clemens to stop sweating the stuff he cannot control the way he used to. Asked if, after his Jets career was over he worried that his NFL career was finished, Clemens said, “Absolutely that crossed my mind. That crosses my mind every year.
“The good thing for me now is, whenever it comes to the end, I won’t have the regrets I would have had when I left New York.”