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Jets should say no to Tim Tebow

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Despite struggling on offense, quarterback Mark Sanchez gives the New York Jets the best chance to win.

Elsa - Getty Images

If you just look at the numbers, there is no reason to even debate Mark Sanchez versus Tim Tebow to be the New York Jets starting quarterback. But Monday morning quarterbacks and Florida Gator fans and 20-year-old girls look at the fourth-quarter comebacks and the game-winning drives with no regard for this basic fact: Sanchez is a better quarterback than Tebow.

And if you believe that fact, then there is no way you can have Tebow under center at any point this season.

Sanchez, for all his struggles and his low completion percentage and high interception totals, has done some nice things as QB for the Jets — including two AFC title game appearances his first two seasons. Sure, he was not good last season and he has not been good this season, but the blame is not only on his shoulders.

A quarterback, save for the Drew Brees' and Tom Brady's of the world, needs weapons around him to be successful. Who does Sanchez have as weapons? Santonio Holmes? Stephen Hill? Chaz Schilens? Dustin Keller? Jeremy Kerley? Shonn Greene? Bilal Powell?

Holmes, Hill and Keller have either missed games or will continue missing games, including Holmes, who the team fears is lost for the season. Schilens and Kerley are fifth and sixth receivers on every other team and Greene and Powell have yet to establish any sort of rhythm running the football.

How can Sanchez succeed with no wide receivers, no running game and an offensive line that gives him no time to throw, leading to the rushed, inaccurate and sometime mind-boggling passes he sometimes uncorks?

Also, it would seem that if the Jets coaching staff, from Rex Ryan to Tony Sparano and down the line, had any faith in Tebow as a passer, that he would have thrown more than one pass so far this season, agree?

But since he has not thrown more than one pass nor been very much involved in the offense at all, one can surmise that the staff does not see much of a role for Tebow and one can assume that the trade for him was a Woody Johnson move more than a Mike Tannenbaum-Ryan move.

Sanchez was drafted No. 5 overall to be the Jets franchise quarterback. If the Jets ship is going to sink, it should sink with Sanchez as the captain. Because he needs weapons and does not have any. And neither would Tebow.

Is Tebow going to turn Schilens into Jerry Rice? Kerley into Michael Irvin? Greene into Emmitt Smith?

If you think Tebow can do all of that, then I have a bridge I would like to sell you.