The Jets have insisted that there is no quarterback competition between Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow.
Thursday’s practice backed up that assertion. The session was open to the media, which, as we learned last week, means that there will be painstaking breakdowns of every throw by both of the quarterbacks. A look at the report provided by Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reveals Tebow didn’t get a lot of chances this week.
He attempted just four passes during eight snaps of the 11-on-11 portion of practice and completed just one of them. Sanchez completed 7-of-14 passes in his 20 snaps, which also included a round of work in the two-minute drill. Tebow didn’t get any snaps during that phase of the practice as Greg McElroy took his turn in the rotation.
While Sanchez is clearly the starting quarterback, he isn’t getting everything quite right just yet. While talking to the media after practice, Rex Ryan praised Sanchez’s knowledge of the offense before giving a mixed appraisal of his on-field work.
“There’s times when Sanchez can throw with anybody in this league,” Ryan said. “Other times, it’s like ‘Ooh gosh.’”
If there are too many “ooh gosh” moments in the months to come, the Jets won’t be able to avoid the quarterback controversy they insist doesn’t exist.