Put zero stock into talk of JaMarcus Russell, Jets

BY NICK ST. DENIS

In the eighth paragraph of his Monday story about the New York Jets' plans to bring in competition for Mark Sanchez, Conor Orr of the Newark Star-Ledger had a small tidbit about Gang Green having "very exploratory, informal" discussions about JaMarcus Russell.

So of course, ProFootballTalk brought it to the forefront. (photo: The Brit_2, Flickr)

Orr later tweeted the following: "Relax people, as I said in here, talks RE: Russell were very informal," before responding "Exactly" to the notion that PFT was deceptive in their representation of his report.

Russell will not be a Jet this offseason, and I don't need a "source" to make that statement. Russell has zero chance of partaking in a legitimate quarterback competition for any NFL team. He's that bad.

Whenever any player or prospect becomes available at any given time, every team in the NFL will in some way "explore" the thing, whether that means simply writing down a note about it or finding out if the guy has weaned off the cheeseburgers. It's protocol.

The only reason this is a story at all is due to the media's constant and relentless straw-grasping to kick the Jets while they're down. They may deserve it at times, but this is just silly. I'm not referring to Orr, as he's one of the respectable ones.

Long story short: Nothing to see here. Move along.

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