What Tim Tebow Must Do to Steal Mark Sanchez' Starting Job

Tim Tebow already did it once with the Denver Broncos to Kyle Orton—take over the starting quarterback role.

Also, once earning the starting role when in college, Tebow didn't give it up until he moved on to pro football. In other words: once Tebow becomes the starter, he remains the starter.

In New York, here are a few things Tebow must to do steal the main gig from Mark Sanchez.

Improve Accuracy

The good news for Tebow here is despite needing to desperately improve accuracy, he doesn't have to make significant strides. Last season, Tebow did only complete 46.5 percent of his throws and was 40.4 percent in the postseason.

However, Sanchez wasn't much better at 56.7 percent, which is just up 2.9 percent from his rookie year in 2009. Tebow isn't far back, and with some more experienced targets in Dustin Keller and Santonio Holmes, the Jets do provide a more proven and reliable receiving corps than Denver's youth.

With his ability to buy time and simply make exciting plays, Tebow as he develops, will improve the accuracy. It would also help to get add a young receiver with No. 1 potential, such as Notre Dame's Michael Floyd in the draft.

Remain a Dual-Threat

Regardless of how much Tebow improves as a pocket-passer, he can never lose his ability to scramble and make plays with his feet.

It's really the main reason that has made Tebow such an popular and polarizing player, but nonetheless, exciting. This is also the one area where he trumps Sanchez completely. Sanchez has decent size to make a sneak for a few years every little while, but the versatility of Tebow is on another level.

As a passer, Tebow is still behind but has displayed improvements. As a runner, Tebow gives Tony Sparano the luxury of using his wildcat package without having to sacrifice the quarterback position with a running back.

Doing so keeps a defense off balance and opens up the playbook to the read-option, play-action, quarterback draw, throwbacks and above all else, setting up the deep ball.

Win

As if there's anything else that truly matters when it comes to participating in competitive sports at any level. In college, Tebow was a winner and he kept that flow going into and through the 2011 NFL season.

Gator fans and Broncos fans didn't care about stats, because Tebow won, period.

So far in the Big Apple, Sanchez has done well enough to hold up his own fort. In six career postseason games, Sanchez is 4-2 with nine touchdowns to just three picks and a 60.5 completion percentage.

But, Sanchez has had his fair share of struggles in the regular season and none more notable than 2011. As for Tebow, he'll obviously get an opportunity to start if Sanchez does slip up early.

In that case, Tebow then simply has to play well enough to win and that's it.

Considering that the pressure to consistently win in New York is arguably higher than anywhere else, patience is limited. Sanchez will be on thin ice this fall and Jets' fans are well aware of Tebow's capabilities.

John Rozum on Twitter.