Tannenbaum Miscalculates Team's Quarterback Situation by Leslie Monteiro , Correspondent November 22, 2009 Mike Tannenbaum loves to be bold when it comes to making moves for the Jets. He has done that in his first few years as the Jets general manager, whether it's tampering to get an elite receiver or making a trade to get that big name to run an offense. A good example of that came in the NFL Draft this year when Tannenbaum made a trade with Eric Mangini's Browns that moved the Jets up in the draft, and that's where he used that pick to draft Mark Sanchez. It was a brilliant move since the Jets selected a quarterback they can build around for the next 10 years. With that said, one wonders if it was a right move to have Sanchez start right away. No one questioned that in September when the team played well to the point Sanchez was called the Sanchise. But now, it's easy for everyone to question it. Fans should have tempered their excitement by realizing that rookies go through slumps. The Jets also always seem to be under Murphy's Law which everything always goes wrong for them going back to their star-crossed history. That's the case with Sanchez these last few weeks, and one wonders why the Jets failed to get a competent quarterback that could give them a chance to succeed while the rookie quarterback learned slowly on the job. A guy like Jon Kitna or Derek Anderson would have made sense. Either one could have been handy in today's Jets' 34-13 loss to the Patriots. The Patriots did okay, but the game could have been winnable for the Jets with a competent quarterback. The Jets knew what it was like to have that quarterback last year with Brett Favre, but the team's failures took the life out of him in the end and the team was happy to see him move on. Sanchez played horrible for the entire game. He threw four interceptions, increasing his total to 16 interceptions this season. Sanchez also failed to move his team to Patriots' territory. Rex Ryan should have made a quarterback change in the middle of the third quarter for the sake of creating a spark for his struggling team. Kellen Clemens may not be the answer, but it can't get any worse. Ryan owed it to the team to see what Clemens can do in this type of situation. It says something about the lack of depth the Jets posses at quarterback when the Jets head coach settled on Sanchez instead of Clemens and Erik Ainge in training camp. This falls on Tannenbaum for not giving Sanchez an opportunity to earn his starting job. Someone needed to push the former USC quarterback, and that's why Mr. T should have worked hard to find that quarterback that would keep this team afloat when a rookie goes through his struggles. If the team was going to contend for a playoff spot, then maybe Clemens would be the way to go. Now, Ryan has no choice but to let his beleaguered quarterback figure out how to overcome his struggles. The Jets need to hope that Sanchez does not completely lose his confidence for the rest of his career. It's doubtful this will happen to a guy with his arm, physique, and football intelligence. But if that ever happens, the Jets will have no one to blame but themselves for putting the kid in a position to fail.
wow terrible article.this is a form article.cross out sanchez and you could add any first round qb that started his rookie year.article=fail
Leslie Monteiro is a blogger for Bleacher Report. Didn't really have much credibility to begin with. Basically the blog states much of the obvious, with a few shock-value moments like the Kitna/Anderson comments and with placing the blame on the QB situation and not taking into account the Jets' complete lack of an answer for Welker on Sunday. No real depth in this wanna-be article at all. Failure of a blog.
The idea that Kitna or Anderson is a good acquisition is stupid. I do, however, think Sanchez should have been benched for a series or two after he threw the interception from the Jets' own 4 yard line. Sanchez knows he is the future of the franchise and should be told it's only a temporary benching, but he needs to realize that there is certain bullcrap you just can't do as a starting QB and making absolutely retarded decisions when you would be better served to throw the ball away falls in that category.
terrible article, no one needs to push sanchez...i guarantee that kid pushes himself enough. i, and most of you probably knew we weren't going to win the superbowl this year. let the rookie get his reps. in my opinion, peyton manning is the best nfl qb to date, and even he threw 28 interceptions his rookie year (granted he did have 26 touchdowns and many more attempts). sanchez wont be a peyton manning, but i dont think we need to worry about sanchez in his rookie year, he will continue to make mistakes, and probably next year too.
and in year 5, "it's a new OC he's getting use to!" The excuses will never stop for this poor interception dispenser
Fuck it...lets cut him now. He's obv. a lost cause. If you cant master the QB spot at 23 years old after 10 games hes screwed. We can package him, Kerry, and a first rounder in a trade and get P. Manning...it works in Madden right.
The article failed for making a few points that were really off the point, like naming Anderson. But, there is within the article a valid argument about Tanny, imo, that goes something like this: Clemens's detractors think the team would have been doing no better than it has with Sanchez if Clemens had been the Qb all along. Sanchez is currently the worst starting Qb in the league. So, what does that say about Clemens? Either the team SHOULD have been playing Clemens and letting Sanchez develop (yes, I don't buy this notion that rookie QB's can only get better by starting every game their rookie year), or Clemens is just as bad as Sanchez. I know the partial answer to that is the party line, that Sanchez beat Clemens out in the camp and pre-season competition. Well, I am first of all not so sure that is what really happened. Sanchez was named the starter right after having a very mediocre outing, among other things. But let's assume that is what really happened. Sounds to me like Clemens must really suck then. So, assuming Clemens is an even worse Qb than Sanchez has been this year, why is he still on the team, slotted at backup Qb? He doesn't have the vet experience to help Sanchez learn in practice and on the sidelines, he can't (apparently) be used to step into seething debacles (like Buffalo) when the Jets still had a chance to win the game long after it was evident that Sanchez was having an awful day, and even now they won't turn to him, with apparently no plans to keep him next year (this latter point I think obviously follows from the logic of the foregoing - in short, he's not an adequate backup). So here's the question - unless one wanted to assume Sanchez was going to be a success in his first season, how did it make sense to first enter the off season last year with Clemens as the #1 Qb, then move him to #2 after they drafted Sanchez, if all the foregoing is the case? It didn't. It is also no answer to say that they didn't know what they had with Clemens when they started the Qb competition, by which point it was too late to get someone else in there. This FO and OC have been working with CLemens for three years, and they didn't know what they had with him when they entered last off season? No way. That leaves two possible understandings from this mess. One is that Tanny should instead have dumped Clemens and brought in somebody (really anybody in the sense that a vet would help with Sanchez and could not possibly be worse - except for Anderson, heh - than Sanchez) who was a decent vet to be the backup, or Clemens is being misused, is not as bad as Sanchez has been, wasn't really given a chance to win the starting spot or at the very least should have been put into a few games there where Sanchez was going down in flames, and hopefully would have given the team a better chance to have won a couple of those losses. That's where the real criticism of the way this team is being run should be found.
BB, couple things. 1) How do you get to the point where Sanchez is the "worst QB in the league?" You've said this already previously, and I disagreed then as well. By what standard are you saying that, because I'd venture to guess that there are a number of QBs around the NFL who are worse than Sanchez in most arguments. 2) Clemens is the #2 because Rex was going to start Sanchez from day 1. We all know this. Why is there no viable backup? Because this is New York. If there were a viable backup, who did even a mediocre job right now, Rex would be villified, calls for Tannenbaum's head would be everywhere, and 70% of the fanbase would be talking about how the Sanchez bust blew yet another draft. Rex committed to Sanchez from day 1. The only reason to have anyone behind him is in case of (Heaven forbid) injury. Who is Peyton Manning's backup QB? Tom Brady's? Drew Brees'? Phillip Rivers'? Aaron Rodgers'? Brett Favre's? Without looking them up, it's doubtful you know all (most? any?) of them. Know why? Because it doesn't matter. That's what having a franchise QB is all about.
I think if we had a good veteran #2 QB Rex would have gone to him in some spots this year when games were still there to be won and Sanchez was shitting the bed. The problem is what do you gain by bringing Clemens in? He has shown he makes the same dumb mistakes Sanchez does except he doesn't have an excuse anymore. Clemens has never looked good for more than a drive or two in his entire career and he usually follows up four or five good passes with a crippling INT or just bad balls that end the drive. Given that, you might as well ride it out with Sanchez and let him learn from his mistakes.
I agree with the sentiment that we should have tried Clemens or even Ainge. Who know's, if one of them had played well, it could have pushed their trade value up. Right now they're both worth nothing and Sanchez by the end of the season might be worth even less. Ryan has fallen into the same trap that Mangini and Herm did. They all have favorite players and are quite happy to ride them into the ground. I'm starting to get the feeling that the Parcell's era might be the best era I'll get to see.
BB so Jamarcus Russel is better then Sanchez? He was starting, as was Derek Anderson. He is near the bottom in most categories but I don't think anyone was expecting top5 after 10 games in the NFL. Patience is a virtue-
Good Lord!!! What is with the negativity, every rookie QB does this same shit. Kay and Don made a good point the other day, Stafford will have a 4 or 5 pick game and nobody says shit, just being in NY highlights all of Mark's mistakes. Stafford- 11 TD's, 14 INT's Sanchez- 10 TD's, 16 INT's Yet we hear no talk of Stafford being a bust.