Tim Tebow will challenge Mark Sanchez for starting quarterback position ... - New York Daily News

Barry Gutierrez/AP

Mark Sanchez (l.) better look over his shoulder for Tim Tebow, according to Broncos pro bowler Champ Bailey.

Champ Bailey had an up-close-and-personal view of Tim Tebow in Denver, watching the young QB rise from curiosity to starter.

And this year, Denver’s All-Pro corner expects to watch something else from afar. Jets brass may claim that Mark Sanchez is the starter and Tebow the Wildcat complement, but Bailey says Sanchez’s job is hardly that secure.

Bailey wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a Gang Green quarterback battle in 2012.

“(Tebow) is gonna challenge him, absolutely,” Bailey said on Tuesday, at the NFL’s new Nike uniforms launch in Brooklyn. “Sanchez can’t be too comfortable in his seat.”

Sanchez presided over a Jets team that played itself out of the playoff picture and battled locker room strife throughout the season. Meanwhile, Tebow galvanized a Denver team that few expected to contend, leading the Broncos to an improbable playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Tebow may be willing to serve as Sanchez’s Wildcat caddy for a while, Bailey said, but deep down, the Jets’ newest weapon wants to start.

“I think this is a short-term thing,” Bailey said of Tebow. “The guy is going to be a starter at some point, whether here or somewhere else, because he’s going to work to get it done . . . He’s a great competitor. He works hard.”

What Tebow doesn’t have yet, though, is the support of the Jets locker room. It was a rocky 2011 season for the Jets, one in which wideout Santonio Holmes feuded with Sanchez, and the team grew divided and frustrated. But tailback Shonn Greene says those issues have all been forgotten.

“I think that’s way behind us,” he said. “It happened. It’s over. I don’t think anybody’s too hung up on that now.”

Greene added that he still maintains full confidence in Sanchez.

“He’s been our starter since I’ve been here, and I think he’s going to be our starter moving on,” Greene said. “I have no doubt in my mind that he’s ready to go and continue. He did it two years in a row, AFC championship (appearances in 2009 and 2010). So why not?”

Greene maintained that Tebow will be a Wildcat QB, and “that’s good, getting more pressure on defenses.” However, Bailey says it will be Sanchez who will face the most pressure from the Jets’ new acquisition. And in the end, Bailey said, that may benefit Sanchez.

“I think once Sanchez sees how hard he (Tebow) works; I don’t know anything about Sanchez, but it’s gonna make him work even harder,” Bailey said. He’s just got to keep playing, play well, that way he don’t have to worry about it.

“But if he doesn’t play well, we all know what’s going to happen next.”

NEW KNOCKS
Jets owner Woody Johnson has indicated that he’d be open to doing HBO’s “Hard Knocks” again. And his team doesn’t seem to have a problem with that, even if it does invite an even bigger circus than the one that Tebowmania has already spawned.

“If that’s what Woody wants to do, then we’ll do it,” Greene said. “I don’t think it played a major role in hurting us or anything like that. It’s just cameras there. We’re still going to do what we do. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

DOWN UNDER
Australian rugby player Hayden Smith, 26, agreed to terms on a three-year deal with the Jets on Tuesday, according to his agent Jack Bechta. Smith will earn an average of $355,000 per season with $100,00 in guarantees in 2012, according to Bechta. The 6-6, 265-pound Smith is projected to be a tight end. He played Division II basketball at Metropolitan State College of Denver before making the U.S. national rugby team.

â€" Manish Mehta