Everything is bigger in the Big Apple, including backup quarterback Tim Tebow. Tebow has bulked up in the offseason, currently weighing 249 pounds – 7 to 9 pounds more than last season with the Broncos. The team has reportedly told him that they would like him at 250 to start the season, and he was voted the second strongest offensive player behind tight end Dustin Keller.
“I feel that I’m just training hard,” said Tebow. “I’m trying to be in shape, be strong enough to do anything, but also fast enough to run around a little bit as well.”
The desire to have Tebow pack on some weight would seem to be an indication that the Jets are serious about their intent to use Tebow in more of a wildcat configuration. If he were being groomed to challenge Sanchez, they’d be focusing more on his accuracy and mechanics.
Head coach Rex Ryan continued to shrug off questions about Tebow challenging starter Mark Sanchez, and the controversy of bringing him to the Jets.
“Is he behind Sanchez on the depth chart? Yes. Just like every team has a guy behind their starting quarterback, but he brings so much more to the table,” Ryan said. “We look at it as we’re adding a good football player.”
Sanchez has looked sharper in the pocket so far this year. In addition, not wanting to be outdone in the weight room he has added five pounds of muscle this offseason himself. Since even the Jets’ quarterbacks are packing on the meat, maybe they are taking Ryan’s promises of ground-and-pound seriously this year.
But clearly Sanchez’s job is to throw first, and he feels good about where his passing is so far this offseason, remarking, “I feel the ball jumping off my hand.”
He did look sharp. And although no one within the organization is talking about a quarterback competition (they will leave that to virtually every member of the media to speculate on), Sanchez sees the importance of competition in a different way. “It’s important to me not just to impress Rex, but really compete — against myself, against the outcome of last season, against any kind of negative feelings we had moving on from last year,” Sanchez said.
There was plenty of criticism to go around the Jets organization last year, after two straight championship game appearances, the let down left people scraping for answers, including Sanchez. “How can we fix it?” he asked. “Now is my chance to do it. I just wanted to make sure I was prepared and ready to handle the season.”
