By Tom Rock
One half of the Jets quarterback hierarchy is complete. Chad Pennington will be the starter for the season opener at Tennessee on Sunday and Brad Smith, who did not take a snap during training camp but wound up engineering a fourth-quarter comeback win against the Eagles, will be the emergency No. 4.
That leaves veteran Patrick Ramsey and rookie Kellen Clemens in the middle. But as of Saturday, Jets coach Eric Mangini said he still did not know who the No. 2 and No. 3 quarterbacks would be. And he was unsure of who the featured running back would be or which receivers will line up. Some teams head into training camp with such questions, but the Jets are six days away from the regular season without solid definition at those key positions.
Mangini’s take: Get used to it.
“At the other place (New England), there was package-based running backs and package-based receivers, package-based tight ends, just trying to get your best group out at all times to execute the game plan,” he said. “I think that’s something that’s important, is getting the best group out there to execute the things that you’re trying to get done based on opponent-specific things.”
In other words, the group that plays against the Titans could be game-planned out of their starting roles by the following week’s game against the Patriots. Roles could even change within a game, Mangini said.
“There's some things to work out based on Tennessee, as opposed to just based on where we are," he said.