With David Garrard now out of the New York Jets' quarterback struggle, and that's exactly the appropriate word for their situation, the team's starting quarterback options are essentially down to incumbent Mark Sanchez or rookie Geno Smith.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets may pick their starting quarterback before training camp.
Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg talked with Mehta about the Jets' quarterback battle, saying, "We don't care what the prevailing thought is," Mornhinweg told Mehta about the perception that the quarterback competition will continue through the start of training camp. "We only care about our competition here."
When asked about the possibility of one of the current quarterbacks, presumably Sanchez or Smith, separating himself from the pack as the team's starter, Mornhinweg responded, "Oh, absolutely," Mornhinweg said. "Sure. Absolutely. That's all part of the process. Absolutely. Everything we do is important. Our meetings are important… the way we go about our meetings, the way we go about our preparation right now with a new system. These are very important things. Every pass we throw out there in OTAs and these practices are important."
The overarching question in New York isn't who will be this season's starting quarterback; it's, is Geno Smith the starting quarterback of the future? If the answer is yes, Smith will likely be this season's starter, even if he's outperformed by Sanchez, so long as the competition is reasonably close. Considering the general attitude towards Sanchez, it's hard to see a scenario where the Jets don't roll with Smith in 2013.