I'm gonna close with one thing I realized about the Jets (besides that they're super awesome). Mark Sanchez is in position to be a GREAT QB one day. No, not a good one. A GREAT ONE.
Follow me here. Lets say you had a rookie QB whose NFL career you wanted to engineer. What would you do? There's much debate over whether its better to have him start immediately have him tutored under a veteran, but lets say you took the first option due to your current needs:
You'd want him to have great receivers. Thats obv. Sanchez has Santonio Holmes (SB MVP, 2 Rings), Plaxico Burress (1 Ring), and Derrick Mason (96 yrs of experience)
You'd give him protection on the O-line. The two most important positions for pass protection are C and LT. We have Nick Mangold, who is easily a top 3 center, if not the best overall. This guy is a beast and pwns Vince Wilfork twice a year. On Sanchez's blindside, we have D'Brickashaw Ferguson, who I think is the best LT not named Jake Long. With these two spots secure, Sanchez can sit and look pretty with his GQ self. Even if he has to scramble, we've seen that he can move around and make plays constantly. His feet are as good as Matt Saracen himself.
A developing QB also needs a great running game. The play action is crucial to a good passing game and the Jets have provided this for him throughout his short career. From Thomas Jones to Shonn Greene to the great Ladainian Tomlinson, Rex has delivered on his promise that ground and pound will be the name of their game. While our guards are kinda weak as of late (Slauson, you're on my shit list. At least Vlad is getting better), ground and pound relieves Sanchez of carrying the entire burden of the offense by himself.
A great teacher is essential to any student. Since Rex Ryan is more of a defensive mastermind, he has made a point of surrounding Sanchez with people who will nurture his growth. Brian Schottenheimer is not afraid of taking shots with Sanchez's arm. (http://goo.gl/8kFVs). This instills confidence in the young QB and gives him experience in trying to make big time plays in big time games. Mark Brunell is another proven veteran with years of experience that add to Sanchez's education and this season's addition of Tom Moore from the Colts can only help.
In order to get to the game, you need practice. Thats where you can make your mistakes and they wont be held against you. You need to have good practices, with people that will only make you better. I think people keep forgetting the fact that in every practice, Mark Sanchez is throwing against 2 of the best CBs in the entire league. Not one but TWO. Everyday he has to figure out the best way to get the ball to a receiver who's being covered by Darrelle Revis. If that guy is not available, the next best receiver is being covered by Antonio Cromartie. After just 2 short seasons, even though Sanchez's accuracy rating has improved substantially, you can see that the quality of his passes are increasing. He's making much more difficult passes and landing them.
Lastly, a young QB needs protection from expectation. If they're expected to deliver from Day 1 all on their own, they'll almost surely fail (Vince Young, Alex Smith, Jamarcus Russell, Brady Quinn). QBs need development time. If they're immediately villainized for every little problem, they'll never make it because the public backlash would severely threaten his job security. Rex Ryan knows this. He counters this by taking the team's burden on his own. By being louder than anyone else on the league, he puts the pressure on himself. In one of my favorite interviews with him, a reporter asked about credit for wins and blame for losses. In short, Rex said that when the teams win, its all because the players were great. If they lose, its on the coaches. By doing this, Sanchez is given free reign to be himself and learn at his own pace.
Look. I'm not saying that Mark Sanchez is the greatest QB of all time or anything. He's not even a top-10. But he's growing and he has all the tools around him to make him a successful QB in this league. I'm just saying that you shouldn't be surprised if he makes a top-5 list sometime in the future after the Bradys and Peytons are all retired.
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