Through a series of introductory interviews, general manager John Idzik has made one thing clear: The roster will be built on competition. Players will be challenged for their spots.
This includes the starting quarterback position and Mark Sanchez, who is scheduled to make a guaranteed $8.25 million after a troubling 2012 during which he was benched twice.
Idzik, who was hired less than a week ago, finally got to meet with Sanchez to let him know personally.
"Yeah, Im comfortable with Mark being a Jet," Idzik said on WFAN Monday morning. "I told him as well, were going to add competition. ... Its going to help make Mark and everybody else better."
Sanchez, though, should have seen the writing on the wall. One similarity between Idzik and former general manager Mike Tannenbaum was that both intended on pushing Sanchez with new blood in 2013.
During the Tannenbaum regime, the Jets scouted quarterbacks like West Virginias Geno Smith, Syracuses Ryan Nassib and Virginia Techs Logan Thomas before he decided to stay another year in college, according to people briefed on the matter. These people requested anonymity because the Jets do not make their possible draft targets public.
Idzik said he planned on keeping Tannenbaums personnel department in place, too, which means that those same eyes are still present in the teams front office.
More recently, after Tannenbaum was let go, members of the organization had some very exploratory, informal discussions regarding former Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the 2007 No. 1 overall pick who flamed out of the NFL after the 2009 season. Russell recently decided to mount a comeback in hopes of returning to the league next season.
