As Kellen Clemens walked away from his locker yesterday, he said to the reporters around it, “I’ll see you next week . . . hopefully.”
Turns out, he had nothing to worry about.
The Jets’ brief flirtation with Jay Cutler came to an end last night when the Bears acquired the disgruntled Broncos quarterback.
The Jets talked to Denver about swinging a trade for Cutler, but Chicago won the bidding, shipping two first-round draft picks, a third-round pick and Kyle Orton to Denver for Cutler and a fifth-round pick.
That leaves the Jets right where they have been since Brett Favre’s retirement. It’s a battle between Clemens and Brett Ratliff — both unproven players — unless the team adds a quarterback through the draft or through a late pick-up.
The two quarterbacks met with the media yesterday before the Cutler trade was announced.
New coach Rex Ryan has publicly backed a competition between Clemens, Ratliff and another youngster, Erik Ainge, for the job. The team’s interest in Cutler, though, indicates privately that the team might not be as confident in a strong candidate emerging.
“I would say it’s motivating,” Clemens said. “Obviously, the organization is constantly looking to upgrade their positions as they should. In my heart I feel like I’m a very good option for this football team this year. Any time you hear rumors or speculation, it motivates me a little bit to continue to prove they don’t need to look outside the organization.”
The acquisition of Brett Favre last summer and the subsequent trade of Chad Pennington left the Jets with a hole at quarterback this year. Clemens started eight games in 2007, and Ratliff has never seen regular-season action.
Ratliff and Clemens each said they have focused on what they can do to improve, and tried to ignore the talk about Cutler.
“I watch ESPN, but it’s not for that,” Ratliff said. “It’s to catch highlights of March Madness or whatever it is. I love sports still but anything that has to do with me . . . sometimes it’s going to be good, sometimes it’s going to be bad. If you’re going to read the good stuff, you’ve got to read the bad stuff so I try to avoid it altogether.”
Several Jets players said they believe either Clemens or Ratliff can lead the team.
“I have a bunch of confidence in those guys,” receiver Jerricho Cotchery said. “I’ve been watching them work since they have been here. Those guys have been preparing like starters. Definitely, playing behind Brett [Favre] you know you are not going to get a chance to play at all because even if he is banged up, he is still going to play. He played I don’t know how many consecutive games, but those guys still prepared like they had a chance to play and you can respect that.”
