Tom Coughlin Explains the Tim Tebow Trade - NBC New York

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Oracles come in strange places sometimes.

The Jets have stumbled all over themselves for more than a week now in attempt to explain why they traded for Tim Tebow.

They've talked about his ability to run the Wildcat, the need for a backup quarterback and a million other things that don't do much to explain why they'd open the door to the kind of constant controversy that Tebow's presence would bring when they are simultaneously praising Mark Sanchez to the heavens.

All of those words fall empty when they keep talking and make it clear that they are totally open to having Tebow take over as the quarterback as soon as possible.

It would be much easier if they just said they wanted to up the competition at quarterback while also potentially giving their offense another playmaker. You might not agree with it, but at least you could accept the thought process and not be left thinking that the real reason for the deal was Tebow's outsized celebrity.

Leave it to Tom Coughlin to cut through all the doublespeak and make everything crystal clear. The Giants coach has no particular dog in this hunt, but he was still asked about the move at the owners meetings in Florida.

His answers left little doubt about what he thinks was behind the deal on both the public relations and the football fronts.

On the Jets dominating the headlines: "You know who won the Super Bowl even if we're not on front page. New Yorkers know."

On handing a third of the team's offensive snaps to a different quarterback: "I don't have a lot of experience with that. Once you start to develop your guy, you like him to have the ball in his hand. ... With our guy? I don't do hypotheticals"

And there you have it. This isn't a trade you make if you really believe that your quarterback is the man who is going to lead your team to the Super Bowl in the future.

The Giants were once faced with a similar choice concerning Eli Manning, who was a mediocre quarterback coming off of his third season. The team didn't waver, though, and Manning paid them back big time.

Does he get there if the Giants stuck another quarterback to take away snaps in his fourth season? It seems unlikely.

Sanchez isn't Manning, obviously, but he does have a pretty similar resume to this point in his career. Sticking with him could pay similar dividends or it could blow up in the team's face.

The Jets will never know, even though they had a pretty good example of the patient route staring them right in the face.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.