08/05 — Rex Ryan talked about his quarterbacks today.

The coach didn’t really say anything earthshaking, but he gave indications of where the Kellen Clemens/Mark Sanchez competition stands now and when it might be resolved.

“I think it’s a good competition,” Ryan said at today’s news conference. “We’ll start seeing a little more when we start scrimmaging more, the two-minute situations and all that kind of stuff. We’ll find out in the end, after all our preseason games, and I think we’ll have a good feel for who’s our guy.

“Obviously, you want to make that decision as fast as you can. But we’re not there yet. I’m not ready to do that.”

And while Rex didn’t give a specific timetable for the Jets job to be decided, he did offer his rule of thumb:

“I think ideally you’d like to have a pretty good idea going into that third preseason game of who that guy is.”

So it’s possible but not definite that he and coordinator Brian Schottenheimer will settle on their starting QB before the Jets “travel” to the Giants for the last preseason game ever played between the rivals in OMS — Old Meadowlands Stadium.

“Really, a whole lot hasn’t changed,” he summed up. “I think Clemens has got a better grasp of the system than Sanchez does. They’ve both had their moments. Then they’ve both had their moments when it’s ‘What are you doing?’ The competition’s good. I think of something an old coach used to say: ‘The cream’ll rise to the top and we’ll be able to figure it out.‘ ”

Diet update: Rex did indeed have his big bowl of Cheerios with skim milk this morning after five days on his liquid diet. The figure after the first five days on the diet: Ryan has lost 20 pounds. He said he’s down to 322.

“Did I call it?” he told reporters. “I have a funny feeling more of my predictions might be coming true than just that.”