INDIANAPOLIS — Just in case Mark Sanchez didn’t know it already, new Jets general manager John Idzik isn’t going to let him get comfortable this year.
Stuck with Sanchez for what most likely will be one final season, Idzik offered tepid praise for the beleaguered quarterback here yesterday while repeatedly emphasizing that Sanchez will have to battle for the starting job.
“We’re going to do everything to increase the competition so that he plays better,” Idzik said of Sanchez during a news conference at the NFL scouting combine.
And if Idzik wasn’t clear enough, coach Rex Ryan added an exclamation point when asked yesterday if he could guarantee Sanchez would be the starter in 2013 after his unceremonious benching late last season.
“Clearly, there’s going to be competition at that position,” Ryan said.
Left unsaid, however, was where the Jets will get that competition. Backup Greg McElroy struggled mightily after taking over for Sanchez, and Tim Tebow is expected to be cut or traded after one baffling cameo of a season in New York.
The current quarterback draft class, meanwhile, is considered the weakest in years, and it’s highly unlikely the cap-strapped Jets can afford the top two veterans thought to be available in Matt Flynn of Seattle and the 49ers’ Alex Smith. Another passer thought to be in the Jets’ sights — Tarvaris Jackson — re-signed with the Bills.
Idzik might not have quarterbacks lined up to challenge Sanchez just yet, but the Jets’ boss said he thinks the addition of new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and new quarterbacks coach David Lee could make a big difference.
“We’ve got a new offensive coordinator, we have a new quarterback coach, we have staff changes that I think will be healthy for Mark and so that we can again get the juices flowing and turn the page into 2013 — not look back to 2012 — and start anew and get rolling.”
Sanchez also won’t have to worry about Tebow, judging from Ryan’s comments yesterday.
Sources say the Jets are using the combine to gauge the long-shot potential of a trade market for Tebow, but that is considered much more of a case of wishful thinking than reality.
Once the Jets become convinced that the one-dimensional Tebow has no trade value, he is expected to be released. That could happen next month or after their offseason minicamp should Idzik decide to take one last look at him.
Ryan’s cryptic description of Tebow yesterday couldn’t have been reassuring.
“Currently, when you look at everything, Tim is under contract to be a New York Jet,” the coach said. “We’ll see how things go in the offseason, but Tim is under contract.”