In January 2009, USC quarterback Mark Sanchez announced his intentions to declare for the 2009 National Football League Draft after his junior year. This decision left Sanchez’s college head coach and current Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll visibly upset. Carroll was disappointed in Sanchez’s decision and he headed for the exit during Sanchez’s press conference. At first Sanchez appeared to come out smelling like a rose while Carroll was looked at as a grumpy man who was attempting to control his players in pursuit of another Rose Bowl bid. Sanchez would go on to be the fifth overall selection of the 2009 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. In his first two seasons with the Jets, Sanchez helped the team reach the AFC Championship Game while compiling a 4-2 playoff record. Sanchez was the talk of New York City as the Jets were a playoff team that left many in Gotham thinking of a potential trip to the Super Bowl.
In reality Sanchez’s stats were very pedestrian like as the Jets won with the team around him that featured a strong defense and an equally impressive running game. In the NFL, Sanchez has never had a season in which he had a completion percentage over 60 percent and he has never had a quarterback rating over 80.0. This has been compounded by the last two seasons where Sanchez has thrown 39 touchdowns and 36 interceptions. Sanchez’s record as a starter in the past two seasons is 14-17.
Sanchez has gone from being called the next “Broadway Joe” after former Jets quarterback Joe Namath to just another Jets quarterback. Now as training camp is upon us, Sanchez finds himself in a battle to be the Jets starting quarterback with rookie quarterback Geno Smith.
Jets head coach Rex Ryan has publicly come out and asked fans to lay back on their criticism of Sanchez, but when you were teased in the fashion that they were it is tough. When the Jets drafted Sanchez, they moved up 12 spots in the draft to take a player who was fresh off of being named the offensive MVP of the 2009 Rose Bowl. However in three years at USC, Sanchez never started for a full year and he only had 16 collegiate starts under his belt before jumping to the NFL. Sanchez was put into the driver’s seat of the Jets car, but he hasn’t been able to get the car out of neutral and his confidence is visibly shaken.
After Sanchez departed USC, Carroll remained there for one more season before joining the Seahawks. Carroll knew that Sanchez wasn’t ready for the NFL, but the lure of potentially being a first round pick was enough to persuade Sanchez into leaving Los Angeles. Prior to coaching at USC, Carroll had a past life in the NFL as he was the head coach of the Jets and the New England Patriots. Carroll has an eye for NFL talent which was illustrated at the 2010 NFL Draft. In Carroll’s first draft with the Seahawks, he overlooked USC safety Taylor Mays whom he had recruited in college, in favor of Texas safety Earl Thomas. The move sent shock waves throughout the NFL, but several years later Thomas is a two-time Pro Bowl selection for the Seahawks while Mays is clinging to a roster spot with the Cincinnati Bengals.
The only two reasons that Sanchez is still with the Jets is that Ryan is still the head coach and Sanchez counts as $8 million towards the salary cap this season after former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum gave Sanchez an extension last year to appease him after the team traded for current New England Patriots quarterback Tim Tebow. Tannenbaum was fired after the 2012 season and if Ryan had been fired more than likely Sanchez wouldn’t be on the Jets roster. The Jets have a new general manager in the form of John Idzik who surprisingly retained Ryan as his head coach. It would have been extremely tough for Sanchez to have retained his position as Jets starting quarterback with both a new head coach and a new general manager in place.
When you’re purchasing a new car, you want to make sure that it just doesn’t look pretty on the showroom floor, but that it can also provide you with a smooth ride on the highway. Sanchez hasn’t had the ability to deal with the backlash of being a quarterback in New York City as he gets rattled. Carroll knew that he wasn’t mentally ready for the NFL as a full season as a starter at USC would have helped the process. If Sanchez had waited another year he would have still been a first-round pick and he more than likely would have been in a better situation. A few years later, Carroll is the one who is smelling like a rose.
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