New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum was a guest of Mike Florio's on Thursday's episode of PFT Live. Tannenbaum discussed Joe McKnight's McDonald's diet, their past and possible future appearances on HBO's "Hard Knocks", Nick Mangold's appearance on Jimmy Fallon and, of course, Tim Tebow.
Super size me
Joe McKnight's offseason regimen of McDonald's left the Jets running back 16 pounds heavier, writes Gregg Rosenthal. **More ...**
"We had a good idea of what we were getting ourselves into, Tim is a pretty unique person with a very unique following," Tannenbaum said. "When we made the decision from the football aspect ... we felt like by far this was the best opportunity for us to try to get back to some of the diversity we want to do. We just thought it was a great opportunity ... We can manage the distractions."
Though Tannenbaum would not divulge all of the roles Tebow is expected to play, we do know that he is coming to the Jets as a No.2 quarterback and has been talked about as a possible upback on Mike Westhoff's punt coverage unit. How long Tebow remains the No. 2 quarterback will directly affect his role on the punt team, but using him there is actually a very smart use of a willing and versatile athlete. The Jets already had one of the stronger punt coverage units in the league and the element of a fake punt will make opposing special teams coordinators have to work a little harder the week before they play the Jets. With 887 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns in 23 games, Tebow will also be featured in "Wildcat" packages as the Jets attempt to get back to its "ground and pound" offensive roots.
"I think another way to look at it, it was very interesting from my experience going through this sitting side-to-side between Rex (Ryan) and Tony, Rex from the day he got here he always just talked about its difficult to defend 11-on-11 when the quarterback is able to run the ball," Tannenbaum said. "When we lost Brad Smith we clearly lost something to our offense. ...We think this is going to be much harder to defend us because there are a lot of ways we can attack you."
"I think the object of the exercise is being able to control the game. We need to establish the line of scrimmage and our success has been predicated on that and a tough physical defense."