Tim Tebow May Play Varied Roles for Jets, Rex Ryan Says PALM BEACH, Fla. - Tim Tebow will be at the center of the most well-attended news conference in backup quarterback history Monday. But on Sunday, Jets Coach Rex Ryan opened the door to something more: that Tebow could be used at other positions. "We'll see," Ryan responded with a smile when asked about Tebow's lining up at a position other than quarterback. Mark Sanchez is our No. 1 quarterback, Tim Tebow is our No. 2 quarterback, but he's also going to do other things for this football team," Ryan said. He is a football player, and that's what I keep wanting to put out there. Let's not just look at him as a quarterback. I look at him as a football player. Let's not hear what guys can't do - let's talk about what they can do. I see a guy with a lot of ability, and we're going to do that. Tebow has repeatedly said he wants to play quarterback, even though talent evaluators have long believed he may have a better chance of a lengthy career as a multidimensional player, perhaps as an H-back, tight end and running back. But in a 10-minute interview with a small group of New York-based reporters during the annual N.F.L. meetings, Ryan repeatedly referred to Tebow as a "football player." That was perhaps an indication that the Jets were thinking about expanding his role under the new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano, who used the Wildcat with the Dolphins. "I don't see Tim just holding a clipboard," Ryan said. He's going to be playing for us. There's no doubt. He'll have a role. Wildcat. He'll be a better Wildcat quarterback in the game. Is that his only role? We'll see what happens. Ryan said he was not concerned about Tebow's arrival undermining Sanchez's confidence, and he expected Sanchez to improve this season under Sparano's tutelage. I think Mark, No. 1, is an extremely confident guy," Ryan said. What he understands is we're bringing in a football player, and a guy that is going to help us. And that's all we care about. But weeks before Tebow takes the field in his first practice, Ryan has already faced what could become a routine, if troubling, question: if Sanchez struggles, will he replace him with Tebow? "I'm not going to just say if this happens, if that happens," Ryan said. If something like that does happen, we'll address it. Later, he said, "I feel better about our quarterback situation than I have since we got here." THE OTHER BACKUP IN TOWN Tebow mania has not gone unnoticed by the other team that plays at MetLife Stadium. The Giants also signed a backup quarterback last week, David Carr, and when the Giants co-owner John Mara was asked if New York was big enough for the Giants and Tebow, he said: "I don't know. But the David Carr news conference will be tomorrow afternoon, too. 2 TEAMS SEEK ARBITRATION The Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys, two of the N.F.L."s highest-profile and richest teams, have filed for arbitration in their dispute with the league over its decision to strip them of a combined $46 million in salary-cap space. The adjustment was made, with the consent of the players union, just before free agency opened this month. The teams have contended that they did nothing wrong in structuring contracts to take advantage of the uncapped year in 2010, and that the contracts were approved by the league. But the N.F.L."s management council executive committee docked the Cowboys $10 million and the Redskins $36 million because teams had been repeatedly warned not to dump salary-cap hits into the uncapped year because it could affect competitive balance in future years. The union went along with the league's wishes in exchange for the league's setting the salary cap at $120.6 million; it was possible the salary cap would have dropped as low as $115 million. The complaint sets up a rare public fight between owners and the league - with the union, unusually, on the same side as the league. It will be heard by the arbitrator who oversees the N.F.L., Stephen Burbank, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. John Mara, who is chairman of the committee and whose team is an N.F.C. East rival of the Redskins and the Cowboys, defended the league's ruling. "I thought the penalties imposed were proper," he said. What they did was in violation of the spirit of the salary cap. They attempted to take advantage of a one-year loophole, and quite frankly, I think they're lucky they didn't lose draft picks. But the penalties imposed because of what one person briefed on the situation called "a gentlemen's agreement" has also led to questions about whether owners were colluding to suppress salaries in the uncapped year, a topic that concerned the players union in 2010. "This has nothing to do with collusion," Mara said. It has to do with teams attempting to gain a competitive advantage through a loophole in the system.