1495 Sports is proud to bring these New York Jets Quotes for 2/21/13:

General Manager John Idzik:

Opening Statement:

“Good Afternoon, I’m John Idzik with the Jets. (laughter) I’m glad to see all of you here and it’s good to be here. We’re kind of back in our element. We’re really just grinding and interviewing players and watching players, so this is a welcome site for a lot of us – the kickoff to a stretch run so to speak, for our draft preparations. I’ve been on the job with the Jets now for about a month and it’s been very productive for me and very enlightening. I’ve already spent a lot of time with Rex Ryan and his staff. We finished finalizing our coaching staff about two weeks into it, then we spent a solid full week in the bunker with our Pro (Personnel) guys going over free agency and, of course, our roster with coaches. We finally spent a good portion of two weeks in the bunker with our college guys in preparation for the draft and the combine. I’m happy to be here today and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.”

 On evaluating the unrestricted free agents on the roster such as running back:

“Shonn (Greene) is an unrestricted free agent and anywhere we have unrestricted free agents at running back, or offensive line or safety, we will certainly evaluate our own in comparison with what might be out there in free agency. We do spend a lot of time doing those positions.”

 On whether he can clarify the team’s position on Darrelle Revis:

“Darrelle Revis is obviously a great football player. He’s a great New York Jet. He’s a tremendous asset to our football team and our organization. With respect to clarity, I don’t know that anything has really changed because we’ve always wanted Darrelle to be a part of our team. That has never changed. I think there have been rumors or stories published and it’s really hard for me or anybody in our organization to speculate and answer to all rumors or stories that we hear. With respect to Darrelle, we’ve always wanted him to be a part of the New York Jets. Our focus with Darrelle right now is to aid him in any way we can with his rehab so he returns to the player we all know he is. As such, he will be a tremendous asset to us.”

 On if he will entertain trade offers for Revis :

“Specifically (talking about) Darrelle, I don’t think it’s something that’s limited to one person. With me and my job and Rex (Ryan) and everybody involved, we will always field calls and always have internal discussions about how we can improve our team day-to-day, position-by-position. That’s an ongoing process. That’s not isolated to any one player or any one position. That’s just something that we do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, particularly at this time when you’re going into free agency and the draft. There are a lot of what-if’s if you will that we will be discussing internally.”

On improving the roster and prioritizing the needs of the team:

“I don’t think you isolate it to any one or a few positions. We’re going to have a general mantra here with the New York Jets and it’s going to be “Competition Through and Through.” That’s going to be true this year in 2013 as we enter free agency, it’s going to be true as we go into the draft, it’s going to be true as we come out of the draft, it’s going to be true as we go into training camp and into our regular season. And if we have success and we win a championship, it’ll be true after we win a championship. I think it’s going to be something constant. We want to improve competition at every single position. And are there positions of need? Of course, there are positions of need that you’re going to focus on. But I just want to give the flavor of what we’re going to be about. Even if you think there’s an incumbent, we don’t want complacency. We want the type of players that even if they’re arrived in this league and are performing at a high level, it’s inherent to them to thrive on competition, and we’re going to try to provide that to them. But yes, we’ll focus on need positions.”

On evaluating Mark Sanchez after the 2012 season:

“I don’t limit it to last year. I think it’s a full book. Mark Sanchez has been in the league for a couple of years, and I think everyone, Mark included, recognizes that he, our offense — shoot, our team as a whole — has to perform better than we did in 2012. And we’re going to do that. We’re going to do everything to increase the competition so that he plays better. We’ve got a new offensive coordinator, we have a new quarterback coach, we have staff changes that I think will be healthy for Mark and so that we can again get the juices flowing and turn the page into 2013, not look back to 2012, start anew and get rolling.”

On the attributes he and Rex Ryan want in the Jets offense and team in 2013:

“We speak about it on a daily, hourly basis. I think Rex coined the phrase and it’s pretty effective: Play Like a Jet. And I think what he means by that is, as I’m going through free agency meetings and we’re reading reports on our New York Jets and reading reports on prospective free agents and we spend a lot of time reading reports on all these draft-eligible players, that’s a constant phrase that we have. It’s something we want embedded in everyone that’s on our team and specifically those that are evaluating players is play like a Jet. I think what it means is it’s really a reflection of him, (but) it is a reflection of the New York Jets and how we’re going to be. We’re going to be attacking, we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to be physical, we’re going to play smart. There’s a litany of very key adjectives that we have for the type of player, the type of people, the type of scout, the type of coaches we want in our organization. And that’s reflective of how Rex is, and I think that’s why he’s an excellent leader to have to spearhead that charge.”

On if the Jets might use their franchise tag on a veteran in the coming weeks:

“Again, I hope you would respect the fact that we’re not going to lay our plans out publicly, but we do have a number of unrestricted free agents, a few restricted free agents. We’ll give them a lot of inspection between now and March 12, the opening of the 2013 league year, and, first of all, determine who we want back, what are our alternatives, either potentially through free agency or the draft, and lay it all together. As far as specific tags or what-not, I’d rather not get into that publicly.”

Head Coach Rex Ryan:

Opening remarks:

“It’s neat seeing John come up here and he’s basically talked about the mentality and the direction of our team. It’s great. It’s funny, I realized there are a lot of similarities between John and I. Obviously (when) we grew up, our fathers were coaches in the National Football League. In fact, both of our dads coached for the New York Jets at one time. We’re similar in the fact that we grew up with a great passion being around football all of our lives. We’re both about the same height. He’s super smart and I’m super average probably (joking). But really, there are a lot of similarities between us. The main thing we have in common is the direction of this football team. We want to win and we want to have a team that basically earns the loyalty and support of our fans. We’re going to have that team. I believe that. I’m excited about the direction of our team when I look at it, the mentality and the type of offense that we’re going to have, an attacking style, that’s the same thing with our defense (and) our special teams, all of it. I’m excited about it and I think our fans should be excited about it as well.”

On the Darrelle Revis trade rumors:

“It’s funny. The thing pops up, and I think it’s interesting, as John talked about, the very first day he gets the job and this is what I was telling Darrelle. When I called Darrelle, (I said), ‘Darrelle, let’s face it, the man hasn’t been on the job for 24 hours and now you’re going to get traded?’ I thought that was kind of interesting and I said, ‘It’s not accurate. Plain and simple it’s not accurate.’ I told him that. If he was going to be involved in a trade, I think he and his agents would know about it, as would the general manager and myself, I would think. So there was no validity to that trade. I don’t know where things like that get drummed up from. Maybe somebody is a big fan of a certain team, and is playing fantasy football, and would like to have him on his team. I’m not sure.”

On the prospects for the team in 2013:

“Each year is different. I can honestly say that we’re going to get our shots. We’re going to get our swings. I did figure this out. I’m not in the prediction world. I’m usually not real good on my predictions, but a prediction I will make, on how many wins you’re going to have and all that, I figured it out. I’m going to make the prediction after the season and I’ll tell you exactly how many wins we’re going to have. I think that prediction will be accurate. One thing I will say is this, and we all feel this, I know I feel this, and I’m sure that many people in our organization feel that same way. We’re stepping up to plate with a bat in our hand and we’re not going to let any strikes go by without swinging. We are going to take our cuts. We may take a cut at a ball in the ground as well, but we are definitely going to take our cuts. When we talk about being aggressive, I don’t know if we really know what that looks like. To me, I have that vision. Some may say, “Well, you’re aggressive on defense.” I don’t think we’re close to being as aggressive as we’re going to be this year in all three phases of the game, and I’m looking forward to it. How many wins? Nobody can tell you that. But I know one thing, we’re going to take our shots.”

On whether Mark Sanchez enters the season as the starter:

“Number one, you heard what John talked about, the competition. We’re going to bring in competition at every position, not just the quarterback position. That is what we want to do here. So to say, Mark Sanchez, or this quarterback or that quarterback, I think there’s clearly going to be competition at that position.”