I agree with everything you wrote here except for the bolded part. Sanchez is an incredible leader. The reason you haven't seen it come out fully yet is that he's still a very young player. I hate to continue to use the comparison to Eli but, it's a very appropriate comparison. Eli also wasn't known as a leader on the Giants in years 1 thru 3. Remember, there was much dissent on the team from Tiki and Shockey. Once those players left, Eli became the unquestioned leader on the Giants. Switching over to Sanchez, he has shown leadership qualities - including his Jets West program - but he still has time to find his voice. He is a very good leader and I expect you'll see it more this upcoming year.
The 2008 Jets were far better than the 2003 Bengals all over the field. The 2009 Jets ranked No. 1 over all in D and rushing the ball. Braylon Edwards with nobody throwing the ball to him had an 80 catch season with well over a 1000 yards 2 years before he had Sanchez throwing the ball to him. Dustin Keller was head and shoulders better than any TE on the Bengals. Cothery cought 82 balls with Pennington throwing to him in 06 with no arm. Palmer was an elite NFL QB in year 3, Sanchez is a bottom third of the league QB in year 3. Palmer carried the Bengals to their 11 win season in year 3, Sanchez bombed down the stretch to play us out of the playoffs in year 3.
Yeah but we're not talking the 2003 Bengals. We're talking the 2004 Bengals. Palmer was drafted #1 in 2003 and didn't set foot on the field all season. Jon Kitna was the QB. There is no way the jets offensive talent in 2009 was as good as the Bengals offensive talent around Palmer in 2004. The Jet's offensive talent in 2010 and 2011 wasn't as good as the Bengals talent in 2005 and 2006. These are completely different circumstances we're talking here. Palmer got a year to sit and then he got a pair of Pro Bowl caliber receivers to throw too and a Pro Bowl back behind him om the backfield. He got a year of playing with those guys in practice and sitting in the meeting rooms with them before the first off-season before he started. Chad Ochocinco went to the Pro Bowl the year before Palmer played, the first year that he played and then 3 years in a row after that. Rudi Johnson went to the Pro Bowl Palmer's first season starting. It's just not the same thing. Why is Aaron Rodgers great? Well a big part of that is he inherited a couple of great receivers in Jennings and Driver. He inherited an offensive system proven to work and then they tinkered with it a bit to fit his strengths. The Packers didn't have to ground and pound for him. It was already built into the system and they had it integrated alongside the high-caliber WCO derivative they'd been playing for fifteen years with Brett Favre. They amped it up his first couple of years but the Packers had been running a bruising inside game all along to force the safeties to come up in run support. The Jets just look like amateurs given how they handled Sanchez and what they gave him to work with on the offensive side at the start.
Exactly so what is your point. You want to compare the 04 or 05 Bengals to the teams Mark had go ahead. The Jets were the better team by far. Mark took over a better team and has had the better team on both sides of the ball running and recievers. Palmer was on the bench year 1, Sanchez had the No. 1 ranked D and rushing attack year 1 they didn't need him to do much and he almost played us out of the playoffs.
2003 Bengals: Corey Dillon & Rudi Johnson at RB Chad Johnson at WR 2004 Bengals: Rudi at RB Johnson and Housh at WR 2009 Jets: Jones and Green at RB Cotch and Braylon at WR. Got Braylon 4 games into the 2009 season. HUGE edge to those early Palmer Bengal teams. I want to know why other young QBs are allowed time to develop but a raw young QB who had 16 college starts is not allowed to have a down year where he still led us to 8-8? I'm confused.
All your points are well taken. Maybe I should amend my point by adding, "....at this moment in time...." At this point, however, all I see from Sanchez is either inappropriate remarks, like the ones he made last week, or more telling in my opinion was he complete and utter silence that lasted literally 2 months after the season. So while to the rest of the league the Jets were imploding, their "leader" was in hiding This is just an observation, but it seems to me that Sanchez is the kind guy who talks the talk as far as leadership goes, but isn't perceived as such by his teammates.
How did he almost play us out of the playoffs? he was near flawless in badly outplaying Palmer in the WC rd, he made a ton of big plays to beat the "great" Philip Rivers and SD and he didn't turn it over until the game was over at Indy in the title game. I love when people make things up b/c they don't have an argument. You want to see someone play a team out of the playoffs? look to your QB in his first playoff start at home in 2005.
Thirty games in three years, four on the road in the playoffs, doubling the team's previous best for a QB in its 50-year history.
that's a great point. They are few and far between. Brady, Manning (when healthy), Rodgers, Brees, Rivers (maybe) and Eli (maybe) After that you go to the next level of QBs with talent by haven't made the jump to the elite level That might be the flaw in Jet fans expectations of Mark Sanchez. Because he was taken 5th the expectation is that he'd eventually reach the elite level, where the reality is that so few QBs EVER reach that level, even good ones. To many Jet fans, if Sanchez never reaches a level of play where he "makes the players around him better", or can "carry" a team, he'll be considered a failure. A victim of over-expectations even if he eventually becomes a very good NFL QB
Not to dog Brady in any way, mind you, but the Patriots were ultimately a lot more successful back when he wasn't quite so good as he's been recently.
The Jets should have let him play out his contract then decide where to go from there. I dont understand what's the point of extending him now. Especially after the season he and the team just had.
Manning has proven he can't. He never had to win w/ the talent Brady has had to win w/ on offense(outside of '07 & '09), his lone SB win he threw 3 TDs and 7 INTs in postseason. Rodgers has immense talent all around him Brees also has immense talent around him Rivers can't win in postseason despite immense talent around him Eli took major strides this season but he's not carrying anyone, if anything Cruz carried him and that O the last 2 weeks of the reg season to win the division. All do make players around them better but that's different than carrying.
i wouldn't put brady in this category. ever since he stepped on the field he's had an awesome defense keeps opponents out of the end zone. the years they haven't had a good def, he hasnt won a sb
by extending him and giving him more guaranteed money, we saved ~8 mil in salary cap for this year. also, we can still cut him after 2013 season w/o any backlashes. so basically we gave him more guaranteed money so we can fill in our gaps this year
Actually, far from carrying the team, Sanchez holds it back. The D is ranked fifth in the league. The O is problematic, to be sure, but still the Jets sent three linemen to the Pro Bowl. I am not a fan of Keller's all round play, but he has led the team in receptions. Holmes gives many here agita for the reasons we know all too well, but he's a former SB MVP. Greene is not spectacular and imo needs to have a solid change of pace back working with him, but he did ground out decent numbers. There's even some young players with good promise, like Kerley. Burress sucked between the twenties and is likely gone, but he did get his share of TD's, and a couple of big catches to save games. So how did the Jets find a way to lose 8 games? MS's 26 turnovers were a big part of the answer why. In his third year he is still ranked in teh bottom third as a Qb.
Rankings never tell the whole story, we had the 3rd D in yds allowed but they blew a ton of late leads in 2010 only to be rescued by sanchez and the O. In 2011 the D was mid of the pack in points allowed and as bad as the O was the D was just as bad failing in big spots all season long. Stevie Wonder could see we had 3 PB OL based on reputation and not actual play. his TOs were not all on him, what about the dropped passes into opponents hands? what about the huge hits he took all year? poor routes, no time to throw, etc... Sanchez had a medicore year but he was not the biggest culprit for our disappointing season.
What inappropriate remark did he say last week? I never listened to his interview on Friday night, was it then?
