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Jets can now bench Sanchez without benching him

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Josh Alper was posting the comments from G.M. Mike Tannenbaum just as I was articulating a similar viewpoint during Thursday’s PFT Live.

With Mark Sanchez still the “starter” and Tim Tebow now the “backup” in New York and the Jets planning to use Tebow in what they should call the T-Bone package from time to time, nothing stops the Jets from using it more often than intermittently.

And when they use it, they won’t be benching Sanchez. They’ll simply be using their alternative offense.

“If our offense is sputtering and we have, say, three three-and-outs and we roll this out there and it’s successful, who knows?” Tannebaum told ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning.

I’ve got a slightly more radical suggestion, based on an approach used by the Carnegie Mellon football team in Pittsburgh under coach Chuck Klausing in the early 1980s. Klausing had two separate offenses. And one would stay on the field as long as it scored a touchdown or a field goal. With a punt or a turnover, the other offense would be inserted into the game. Then, the other offense would remain as long as it produced a field goal or touchdown.

So why not do the same with Sanchez and Tebow? If you score, you stay on the field. If you don’t, the other guy enters -- and he stays as long as he keeps scoring points.

Yes, it’s ridiculous and impractical and implausible and unlikely to ever happen. But after the developments of the past two weeks in the NFL, nothing will ever surprise me again.

For more, here’s a little something from PFT Live.