The soap opera never ends in New York.
With Tim Tebow finally a member of the Jets, traded to the team not once but twice on Wednesday, the man the Jets signed last week to serve as Mark Sanchez’s non-threatening backup is now threatening to leave.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that Drew Stanton wants out. Whether by trade or release, he wants out.
The Jets paid Stanton a $500,000 signing bonus as part of a one-year, $1.25 million deal. But the Jets also reportedly promised Stanton that they would add no other quarterbacks, and that Stanton would be the No. 2.
And now, fully acknowledging my inability to resist the obvious pun, Stanton is indeed being treated like No. 2.
Some would say that, by trading for Tebow, the Jets were true to their word, since he isn’t really a quarterback. Others would say that unforeseen circumstances arose, allowing Tebow to become available.
To the latter we say baloney. It was known when Stanton signed that Peyton Manning could land in Denver and that Tebow would be available. The Jets surely aren’t so impulsive that they hadn’t considered getting Tebow before this week. And so the Jets chose not to disclose to Stanton their unspoken intentions to try to get Tebow, if Tebow becomes available.
It was smart at the time, given that there was no guarantee that Tebow could be had. Now that it’s happened, the Jets owe it to Stanton to let him go.