Sanchez Named Jets’ Starter

The Jets’ first round draft pick, Mark Sanchez, has been named the Jets’ starting quarterback by Rex Ryan, beating out the Jets’ 2006 second round draft pick, Kellen Clemens.  Rex Ryan appeared on 1050 ESPN radio today and said the competition between Sanchez and Clemens was tight but his gut told him to go with Sanchez.

It was Sanchez’s job to lose since the Jets traded up to the fifth pick in order to select Sanchez in this year’s draft.  Neither quarterback was able to take a commanding lead in the competition and their preseason statistics were very similar.  Clemens spoke to the media a while after being told of the decision and said that he had a fair chance to win the job and just didn’t get it done. 

Sanchez addressed the media and said, “Great news, obviously. At the same time, I was appreciative of Kellen and he was the first one to talk to me after the meeting. A real standup guy. It takes a real standup guy to address you like that and he said, ‘Hey man, I’m happy for you.’ He said, ‘I’m behind you 100 percent and this is something great. Take it and run with it and we’ll be in this thing together. I’ll be your eyes on the sideline.’ And that was really special to me. That meant a lot.”