Rex Ryan inherits a Buffalo Bills football team that boasts a strong defense but little talent at the quarterback position. First round pick EJ Manuel has been a bust, and last year's starter Kyle Orton retired at season's end. The free agent market quarterbacks is slim pickings, although there it one name that jumps out: Mark Sanchez.

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Sanchez was the quarterback under center when Ryan led the New York Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship games in January 2010 and 2011.

"Certainly, he'll be a guy under consideration," Ryan said of a potential reunion with Sanchez, via NJ.com. "We'll explore every avenue. If we think there's a free agent like Mark, or somebody else out there that we think can help us, then we'll absolutely explore it."

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However, given that Sanchez is under contract with Philadelphia until March 10, Ryan has since walked back his comments, lest he face accusations of tampering.

"I don’t know. First off, he’s technically under contract with someone else right now so I won’t talk about him specifically," Ryan said to USA Today's For The Win on Monday. "Right now we’re in the early stages, the evaluating stages of possible free agents, draft picks and the two guys that we already have on the roster so that’s really where we’re at right now and too early to tell who’s going to be here, who’s not going to be here and really what our answers would be."

Still, it's easy to imagine Sanchez rocking blue and white next year. After all, Ryan still has the tattoo.