NFL Combine 2013: NY Jets GM John Idzik

"Good afternoon, I’m John Idzik with the Jets. Glad to see you all here. And it is good to be here too. It is kind of back in our element when you are really just grinding and interviewing players and watching players. So this is a welcome sight for a lot of us. A kickoff to the stretch run so to speak for our draft preparations.

"Been on the job with the Jets now for about a month and it has been very productive for me, very enlightening. Spent a lot of time with Rex Ryan and his staff, finished hiring our coaching staff about two weeks into it and then spent a solid full week in the bunker with our pro guys going over free agency and of course our roster with our coaches. And finally spent a good portion of two weeks in the bunker with our college guys in preparation for the draft and Indy Combine and happy to be here today."

(With your starting running back an unrestricted free agent, have you spent more time than usual breaking down this RB crop)

"Shonn is an unrestricted free agent and anywhere we have unrestricted free agents – running back, our offensive line, our safeties, we will certainly evaluate our own as well as in comparison to what may be out there in free agency. So yes, we do spend a lot of time doing those positions."

(We haven’t talked to you since first day, provide any clarity on Darrelle Revis, do you intend to have him on the team this year?)

"Yes, I mean, Darrelle Revis is obviously a great football player, he is a great New York Jet, he’s a tremendous asset to our football team and organization. With respect to clarity, I don’t know that anything has really changed because we have always wanted Darrelle as part of our team. That has not changed. I think there’s been rumors or stories published. And it’s really hard for me or anybody in our organization to speculate and answer to all rumors and stories that we hear. But with respect to Darrelle, we have 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 in his rehab so he can return to the player that we all know he is and as such he will be a tremendous asset to us."

(Will you entertain offers from other teams?)

"Well, specific to Darrelle, I don’t think it is something limited to one player. Me and my job and Rex and everybody involved will always field calls and we’ll always have internal discussions about how we can improve our team day to day, position by position. So that is an ongoing process but that is not isolated to any one player and not isolated to any one position. That is just something we do on a daily, a weekly, a monthly basis. Particularly at this time of the year when you are going to into free agency, you are going into the draft. So there are a lot of what ifs, if you will, that we will be discussing internally."

(So, he’s not an untouchable player, you would at the very least, listen)

"I don’t classify. I am not going to get into speculation as a rule. I don’t think that is too prudent to do that. But any player on our roster, we go forward with the assumption that they are New York Jets until we are presented with the situation that we have to evaluate. Right now, Darrelle Revis is a New York Jet, we are proud to have him and we are happy to have him. He is a tremendous asset to us and that is how we are thinking going into this thing."

(When rumors first started to come out, Revis said he was not getting any answers, is he comfortable with his situation and will he be motivated to come back for the Jets)

"I think you have to ask Darrelle that. I can’t speak for Darrelle. I can say from our perspective, we are very comfortable with Darrelle as a New York Jet and again our focus will be on getting him back, he has a pretty significant injury to rehabilitate. I think that is our focus, getting him back to the level that he was playing at before so he can help us."

(Revis’ trade value tougher than usual to gauge due to injury)

"I don’t know that it is tougher to gauge. Trade value is always a two-way street. You can do it one way but obviously if you are entertaining a trade for any player, it is what the others perceive. We are not privy to that until those discussions would happen. But from our standpoint, Darrelle Revis is a New York Jet, we are glad he is a New York Jet, we want to help him get healthy and I look forward to getting him back in the building.

The dead period in the offseason, you feel empty… I was able to send out an introductory letter to our players but we are limited on what we can say so I can’t wait to see Darrelle in the building, can’t wait to see his teammates in the building so that we can get to know each other and get this thing going. We are really excited to do that."

(Do you think you will talk to his representatives about a possible new contract?)

"I don’t want to get into speculation. I think as a general rule, I think you can understand this and respect it, we won’t ever get into contractual discussions publicly, we won’t get into speculation publicly but we will deal with the here and now. That is the most fruitful way. Otherwise, it could be very misleading and we don’t want to do that."

(At voluntary workouts, do you expect Revis to rehab in New Jersey or with his own people?)

"Whatever is best for Darrelle. We will talk that through with him. If he feels comfortable rehabbing where he is… what we want is a good end result just like Darrelle. What is good for Darrelle is good for the New York Jets. Obviously the more time that we spend one on one with Darrelle is a good thing. So I think as we get into the offseason program, it is all voluntary but you would hope that most of your players want to be in there, be in the building, and get the juices flowing with our staff. We have a fine medical staff, we have a great training staff, we have tremendous facilities. So we feel we have a lot to offer Darrelle and all of our players. So you would hope that they will be here but at the end of the day, it is what is best for Darrelle. How can we get him to clear medically and get him back to the field to where he was before as quickly as possible."

(Do you want to extend his contract before the season?)

"Again, I will never get into contractual situations publicly. Again, suffice it to say, Darrelle Revis is a great player, he is a great New York Jet. We are in the business quite simply of acquiring, developing and maintaining good players, great players. Darrelle Revis certainly fits that mold. We are happy to have Darrelle as a Jet and hope to have Darrelle as a Jet."

(How do you begin to prioritize needs and tackle that?)

"I don’t think you isolate it into any one few positions. We are going to have a general mantra here with the New York Jets and that is competition through and through. That is going to be true this year in 2013 as we enter free agency, it is going to be true as we go into the draft, it is going to be true as we come out of the draft, it is 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 will be true after we win a championship. That is going to be something constant. You want to improve competition at every single position. Are there positions of need? Of course. There are positions that you are going to focus on. But I just want to give the flavor of what we are going to be about.

"Even if you think there is going to be an incumbent, we don’t want complacency. We want the type of players, even if they have arrived in this league and are performing at a high level, it is inherent to them to thrive on competition and we will try to provide that to them. But yes we will focus on need positions."

(From first day you came onto job Revis was a topic and today you have talked about him for eight minutes)

"Eight minutes. That is pretty good."

(how much has the Revis situation affected your introduction to the new job? What have you learned so far?)

"Well, the magnitude of a story that quite honestly I didn’t think was that big… I think it was pretty apparent from my standpoint and certainly from Rex’s standpoint that Darrelle Revis is a highly valued player for us. For that to surface when it did, it was literally my first day on the job. I had just walked into the building and I kind of joked that I was trying to find my office. That to me didn’t lend it much credence. We didn’t even have a chance to get to know each other as a staff much less start to dive down into specific players and situations. It has been a rather dominant topic but hopefully everyone knows by now how highly we value Darrelle."

(Impressions of Mark Sanchez from game film?)

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

(Rex said he wants an offense to reflect him more? Have you guys spoken about that?)

"Sure, we have spoken about it, we speak about it pretty much on a daily, hourly basis. I think Rex coined the phrase, I think it is very effective, is play like a Jet. I think what he means is, as I am going through our free agency meetings and we are reading reports on our New York Jets and we are reading reports on prospective free agents and we spend a lot of time reading reports on all these draft eligible players and then some, that is a constant phrase that we have. It is something that we want embedded in everyone that is on our team, specifically those that are evaluating players is play like a Jet. I think what he means is a reflection of him is really a reflection of the New York Jets. We are going to be attacking, we are going to be aggressive, we are going to be physical, we are going to play smart. There is a litany of very key adjectives that we have for the type of players, people, scouts, coaches that we want in our organization. That is reflective of how Rex is. That is why I think he is an excellent leader to spearhead that charge."

(Chance you may use franchise tag on any of your free agents?)

"Again, I hope you would respect the fact that we are not going to lay out our plans publicly but we do have a number of unrestricted free agents, a few restricted free agents. We will 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 and what are our alternatives potentially through free agency or the draft and lay it all together. But as far as specific tags or what not, I rather not get into it publicly."