Mark Sanchez currently No. 2 on Jets’ QB depth chart
Pretty much everyone assumed that rookie Mark Sanchez would be the Jets’ starting quarterback on opening day. After all, he was signed way before camp, and to the richest contract in Jet history. Camp was just a formality.
Maybe not.
New Jets coach Rex Ryan always has said the job would be an open competition between Sanchez and Kellen Clemens, and in fact Clemens will open camp atop the depth chart. Maybe that means nothing, but assumingly if the players look the same that means Clemens would be the starter in Week 1 against the Texans. New York, by the way, already is a 4-point underdog for that game in Houston.
Ryan reiterated that it remains an open competition but that Clemens will get most of the first-team reps in the early going.
“Mark is going to be given an opportunity to win this job,” Ryan said.
The New York media isn’t making too big of a deal of this, saying Ryan is just putting Clemens at No. 1 to begin with as a courtesy to the veteran, and that if Clemens is No. 1 in a month, then it’s a big deal. I tend to agree with that.
But why wouldn’t you want the rookie to get a majority of snaps with the first team right off? He can earn the veterans’ respect and really learn the speed of the NFL. Plus Ryan is well aware a rookie QB can succeed after he watched Joe Flacco lead the Ravens to the AFC title game last year when Ryan was the team’s defensive coordinator.
Clemens started eight games in 2007, his second year in New York, and went 3-5. Overall he’s thrown 11 interceptions and five touchdowns in three seasons as a Jet. He didn’t play last year because Brett Favre was around.
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