Mike Tannenbaum

After a disastrous Jets season, trading for Tim Tebow became just one in a long series of missteps the team has made in the last year or so. Still, Tebow’s presence became a sideshow that was a distraction for the Jets throughout the year. Former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said Tuesday, in his first interview since being fired at the end of the season, that acquiring Tebow was his idea.

Jets owner Woody Johnson was previously thought to be the one pushing to trade for Tebow, in an effort to generate publicity, but in fact, Tannenbaum said he brought it up first.

“I’m disappointed it didn’t work out, just like I’m disappointed when certain draft choices don’t work out,” Tannenbaum told ESPNNewYork.com Tuesday. “We put in a lot of time and effort. We had a rationale for it. At the end of the day, it didn’t go as we had planned.”

Tannenbaum said he and coach Rex Ryan had been discussing bringing in a running quarterback even before the Broncos signed Peyton Manning and made Tebow expendable. According to ESPN, they wanted a replacement for Brad Smith, who had run the wildcat in New York through 2010.

“We thought there was a role for [Tebow],” said Tannenbaum. “Working with Rex every day, and seeing the way the league has evolved with the ball being in the quarterback’s hands and making plays with your feet, we thought it would give us a chance to make our offense more dynamic. It just didn’t work out that way.”

The Jets sent a fourth-round pick to Denver and got Tebow, who ultimately participated in only 75 offensive plays this season. Even when Mark Sanchez struggled mightily, he was replaced instead with third-string quarterback Greg McElroy.

Ryan and Sanchez don’t appear to be going anywhere, but Tebow is expected to be traded and Tannenbaum was fired at the end of the season.

“Ultimately, I report to Woody. It was his decision to make,” Tannenbaum said. “I was disappointed, but I totally understood it. I had final say and authority on the football team. We fell short this year, and that’s what happens when you fall short.”

Jets owner Woody Johnson claims the decision to acquire Tim Tebow was not his. (AP)

Jets owner Woody Johnson, previously reported to be the driving force behind the team’s acquisition of Tim Tebow, claimed this month that the quarterback was “forced” on him, according to one of the candidates for the team’s since-filled general manager vacancy.

An ESPN story reveals that Johnson and team president Neil Glat interviewed former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist two weeks ago, and during that meeting Johnson said he only “jumped on board” after being convinced of Tebow’s value by his football staff.

“They realized it was divisive and hard on the locker room and they wanted an exit strategy,” Sundquist said.

Johnson fired GM Mike Tannenbaum one day after the regular season ended and hired former Seahawks executive John Idzik last week to replace him. Idzik will be introduced at a press conference Thursday.

Woody Johnson insists the decision to acquire Tim Tebow was not his. (AP)

Jets owner Woody Johnson is not happy with his team’s performance this season.

The Jets are just 3-6 and are coming off a dreary 28-7 loss against the Seahawks last Sunday.

“The record says what’s going on,” Johnson said Thursday. “We’re a 3-6 team. Are we happy? Are they happy? Are the players happy? I know the fans aren’t happy. The answer is no. We’re not happy. We’re not happy with 3-6.”

There has been speculation that Johnson was the key behind the offseason acquisition of Tim Tebow in an effort to get more interest in his team. Johnson said coach Rex Ryan, general manager Mike Tannenbaum, and offensive coordinator Tony Sparano made the decision to bring Tebow to the Jets.

“This, I really want to clear up,” Johnson said. “[The media has] been accusing me of this phony story of me being more concerned with [personal seat licenses] or cash or something else. Listen, my job 1, 2 and 3 is to win games. That’s why I got into football to begin with — to win games. … That’s what my passion is. That’s what I want to do. That’s why I’m spending all this time in this organization. It’s not to sell PSLs or to sell hot dogs.”

Johnson would not speak about any decisions regarding the future of Ryan or Tannenbaum, saying he does not address staffing decisions during the season.

“I didn’t sign up for a 3-6 season,” he said. “We haven’t had one of these in a while. I’m not happy about it, yet I am optimistic that some of these things can be corrected.”

The Jets will try to correct it Sunday when they take on the 3-5-1 Rams in St. Louis.

Though he has previously made commitments to his current quarterback Mark Sanchez, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said that he is looking “very carefully” at the team’s quarterback position and will not rule out the Jets trying to bring in expected free agent Peyton Manning.

“We’re looking at that position very carefully and I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the day, by September, that position group as a whole looks a little bit different than it did at the end of the 2011 season,” Tannenbaum told the New York Post.

According to the report, Manning could be released by the Colts early next month, when he is due a $28 million roster bonus. The 35-year-old Manning is coming off multiple neck surgeries and with the Colts holding the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the common sentiment is that the Colts will part ways with their longtime signal caller.

Other widely-speculated potential suitors for Manning have included the Dolphins, Cardinals and Redskins.

Jets owner Woody Johnson assembled the entire organization Monday morning, and a source familiar with the meeting told ESPNNewYork.com’s Rich Cimino that the team said it would repay all wages lost during the lockout before the employees returned to their desks.

Cimini wrote that the Jets slashed all employee salaries — including coach Rex Ryan‘s and GM Mike Tannenbaum‘s — by 25 percent when the lockout started in early March.

Ryan gave a “fiery” pep talk to the rest of the Jets organization, and Tannenbaum also spoke.

Upon returning to his desk, one employee reported the lost wages had already been direct deposited.

Jets coach Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum will shoot a scene for the show “CSI: New York” on Wednesday, according to the New York Daily News.

The episode is expected to air this spring, the article said.

As cornerback Darrelle Revis missed his ninth day of training camp Monday, the Jets rejected the latest offer proposed by the his agents, and Jets representatives did not sound optimistic a deal can get done before the regular season.

“The answer’s no,” owner Woody Johnson said, a few hours after agent Neil Schwartz told The Associated Press he was awaiting a response from the team.

Revis is scheduled to make $1 million in the fourth year of his six-year rookie deal, but he wants to be the highest-paid cornerback in the league. On Friday his agents met with team representatives and presented a new multi-year proposal.

“Fundamentally, there really wasn’t any change,” general manager Mike Tannenbaum said, “and right now, we can’t find something that makes sense for both sides, so we really don’t have any progress.”

Added Tannenbaum: “The problem in this situation is we have a very fundamental difference of opinion on what the compensation should be. When we will talk next, that’s hard to say.”