Lost in all the anonymous bashing and intense criticism of the New York Jets from the fans and media has been one intriguing question: What do the Jets coaches think of Tim Tebow. If Rex Ryan and company could turn back the clock and prevent the Tebow trade from happening, would they?
We know Mark Sanchez would, and no one can blame him for that. But we also know Ryan was openly excited about the possibilities Tebow would bring to the Jets offense before the season, warning opposing teams to be prepared to deal with both Sanchez and New York’s newest weapon. Blame it on broken ribs if you wish, but Tebow has accounted for exactly 126 yards of total offense and no touchdowns after appearing in 10 games this season.
As Gary Myers of the NY Daily News pointed out, it would be naive to think it is a coincidence that Ryan chose to replace a struggling Sanchez against the Cardinals on a day in which Greg McElroy happened to be the team’s primary backup quarterback. Sanchez was particularly awful and had thrown three interceptions in the first half alone, but he has had plenty of horrible halves and stretches of play this season that would have warranted being replaced. Yet, Ryan never pulled the trigger when Tebow was the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart.
“I don’t want to get into the what-ifs and all that kind of stuff,” Rex said when asked if Tebow would have replaced Sanchez against Arizona like McElroy did. “The fact is Greg was the guy that was active.”
After repeatedly backing Sanchez throughout the years, it took only one 7-6 victory for Ryan to become noncommittal about who his starting quarterback will be next weekend. Sanchez had posted QB ratings lower than 70.0 on six different occasions prior to last Sunday, but none of those games inspired the Jets to bench him in favor of Tebow. Perhaps New York’s coaching staff feels the same way about Tebow as his current and former teammates do.
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