Jets" Sanchez Says He's "Cool" With Quarterback Competition FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Monitoring the N.F.L. draft is not as nerve-racking an experience as it once was for Mark Sanchez. He remembers watching the picks, waiting for the Jets" turn, wondering if they would select a quarterback, and it was not pleasant. He feels more secure now, even if his job is not, and so last Friday he had somewhere else, presumably better, to be than parked in front of his television. He was in his car a few minutes after 7 p.m. when the offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg called to say that the Jets had taken Geno Smith in the second round. Sanchez did not veer off the road. I mean, for what? Sanchez said, when asked whether he was disappointed. Any number of reasons could have sufficed, particularly the bracing reality that he was no longer the Jets" quarterback of the present, let alone the future, and, perhaps, soon to be of the past. Instead, he stood before a bank of portable lockers Thursday, surrounded by more television cameras and reporters than if the Jets were preparing for a playoff game, and defended not so much his credentials - which, at this point, are spotty at best - but his intangibles. His confidence, his competitiveness, his resilience. No doubt, he said, he expects to win the starting job. "There's a challenge for something I hold very dear to my heart," Sanchez said. That has really been my life goal, playing at this level and being a starting quarterback. When somebody challenges you that way, it really brings out your best. A close friend, center Nick Mangold, said he had detected "something different" about Sanchez since workouts began on April 15, which, in fairness, has also been said about Sanchez the past two off-seasons. Only once before in his professional career, however, has Sanchez engaged in a starting competition (even after acquiring Tim Tebow last March, the Jets all but hired a skywriter to proclaim Sanchez's primacy). That came in 2009, when he was a rookie, a challenger, and not an incumbent seeking to fend off a steady veteran (David Garrard) and a dynamic draft pick (Smith), as well as the fans" preference that anyone start but him. Already Smith has claimed the niche that Sanchez occupied four years ago, maybe even two, after those consecutive appearances in the A.F.C. championship game: bursting with potential, with hope, with something more than 26 turnovers, more than a benching against Arizona and a bumbling at Tennessee in a must-win game. Had Sanchez performed better last season, there would not have been as great an urgency to identify the franchise's next quarterback, and Mornhinweg might never have needed to call him last Friday - twice. First, to encourage Sanchez after hearing commentators during the draft broadcast criticize him; Sanchez's response was, "Come on, man, this is part of the job." And then, not long after, to break the news about Smith. "We're heating up the competition," Mornhinweg told him. "All right," Sanchez said. Sanchez said that he was given no indication that the Jets were considering drafting a quarterback, and that he had yet to speak with Smith or discuss the situation with Coach Rex Ryan or General Manager John Idzik. Sanchez, it seems, intends to treat Smith much as he did Tebow - professionally, respectfully, but without the bonhomie more common with teammates playing other positions. Sanchez vowed that he would not be "a jerk" to Smith, that he would answer his questions because, he said, "I don't think that's going to hurt my chances of playing." But he agreed that his response to a question about Tebow would also apply to Smith: "If the guy's got a flat tire on the side of the road, I'm going to stop. I'm not just going to blow by him. But at the same time I'm not like sending him gifts on his birthday or anything. In this muddled competition, which technically includes Greg McElroy and Matt Simms, there is but one certainty. And that is that Smith, barring injury, will make the 53-man roster. However awkward it might be to keep Sanchez while they groom his successor, the Jets have no financial incentive to get rid of him anytime soon. He is owed $8.25 million and a prorated $500,000 workout bonus, even if he is released. Cutting him - with a June 1 designation, which would grant them somewhat of a reprieve - would sock the Jets with a debilitating cap hit. Sanchez said that he "absolutely" expected to remain with the team all season, and that he had not thought about his future - at least one that does not include starting Sept. 8 against Tampa Bay at MetLife Stadium. "There's not enough hours in the day to worry about what fans are saying, what the media is saying, if this is my last chance," Sanchez said. It's too much. He also said: "There's a little fire going, and that's good. I'm cool with that. I think it's good for everybody. Quinton Coples, the Jets" first-round draft pick in 2012, has moved to outside linebacker after playing most of his rookie season as an interior defensive lineman. Moving Coples outside will create an opportunity inside for defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson, who was selected with the No. 13 pick last week.