I don't see why it's dumb to expect him not to be a great QB. I don't expect him to be. I think Jets fans ultimately hype Sanchez up a lot more than they should. I can see him being at best an average to good NFL starter, but I just don't see a great QB in him. Not now, not ever. It's not being a darksider. I'll root for him as long as he's the starting QB of the New York Jets. I just don't see him being a premier talent (a la Brees, Brady, Peyton, Rivers, Vick, etc.). I'll now brace myself for the verbal attacks of me being an idiot because I think like the rest of the NFL fan base outside of NY.
I'm still curious to know what everyone has seen out of him to think otherwise. Really, I am. Other than being a diehard Jet fan and wanting him to succeed, what is it??? We're so quick to denigrate other team's players but we hold ours in such high esteem like they're going to be the greatest player ever. There's always an excuse made for when he stinks up the joint. It's always the playcalling or dropped passes or something. To some degree, that gets some credence, but a lot of QBs have those same issues and can rise above it. I'm sorry, but I don't see it from Sanchez. Never have. If he proves me wrong, fantastic. But on draft day, maybe I'm the only other person that agreed with that kid shaking his head (with the exception of, I was okay with it when I found out we gave up basically nothing).
Making it to the AFCCG as a rookie with limited college experience? Breaking rookie QB in the playoff records. 3 straight and 4/5 comeback wins this year. A 9-2 and now 9-4 (still good) record with a stalled running game. All of this from 22-24 years old. His ability to play best in big games/clutch moments. Now I'm not saying he's an automatic hall of famer, but it's unfair after all of these accomplishments in limited playing time to say "at best he will be average" Setting his CEILING as average is stupid.
You would have to be a little dumb to put that low of a ceiling on a 24 year old's career at the moment. A career that already includes an AFC Championship appearance, where HE played great, including an 80 yard TD pass. Possibly being handcuffed by a poor play caller as well. The best thing about Sanchez is everyone knocked him for lack of experience, and now look at all the experience he is getting his first 2 years in the NFL. He could be elite for sure. He will only get better, not worse.
If not for your "post-merger (1970)" qualifier, Joe Namath would also be on that list and your list would then be complete. Here are the guys who threw 800 or more passes and completed more than 55% of their passes during their first two seasons- Dan Marino Peyton Manning Carson Palmer Jeff Garcia Jim Kelly Matt Ryan Joe Flacco Jake Plummer Byron Leftwich Warren Moon Jeff George The 55% and under list contains a greater percentage of busts than does the 55.1% and higher list.
What's sad is that you think they're excuses when the formula I described worked. Nothing I said is untrue. Gotta love bullshit responses like that with nothing behind them... Keep them coming.
Dropped passes my friend, just like GreenMachine said above^^^, NFL recievers need to learn how to catch a thrown football in the NFL
I thought we were a "running team"? Why does Sanchez have to be Johnny U this early in his career? He's done pretty well for a kid coming out early and starting in NYC. Add in the expectations placed upon him by Ryan's proclamations of imminent success and Schotty's convoluted playbook, he's got a heavy burden to carry. Is he the next Brady or Manning? Who knows...but we're gonna see what he's made of over the next few weeks.
You include Michael fucking Vick on the list of "premier talents" I think the jury is still out on that one, unlike the other jury from a few years ago...
Sanchez had a few bad games. Remember a few weeks ago when Peyton threw 7 picks in 3 games or whatever it was? Just relax for now and see how the season unfolds. People were hating on Mark last year until we got to the playoffs. He's inconsistent, but his good games are great and sometimes he lays out a stinker. He's a 2nd year QB- give him some time please.
So when we win games, it's attributed to Sanchez being clutch and being a great player, but when we lose games, it's on the playcalling, the receivers, etc. He deserves a long leash, I agree, but personally, I don't see the same talent that everyone else sees I guess. You can criticize my take on QB analysis all you want, but I don't see why my analysis can be described as wrong yet and how you guys are right. He hasn't proven that much. You mention the AFC championship game like he's the reason we were there. He was a piece to the puzzle, a game manager. He played great in the playoffs, but he was damn well atrocious during the year (don't even try to tell me otherwise...if you do, you can't see bad QB play when it's right in front of you). Why can't we ever attribute the wins to having had one of the best o-lines in football, a great ground and pound game, the #1 defense last year...things like that. But no, Sanchez got us to the AFC championship game. But now that he's struggling, it's Schotty, or it's the dropped balls. Maybe it's just his bad play. You can say it's dumb to say his ceiling is an average to good NFL starter (you all seem to keep taking out the "to good" part of my statement). I know he's young. I just don't see the same ability with him as I do with the great QBs. If all you Sanchez lovers would stop reacting like I just shot your dog, that'd be great. All I'm saying is that I think his ceiling is more along the lines of say...Carson Palmer or Jay Cutler, not Peyton, Brady, and yes, Michael Vick (jury's still out on whether he can keep it up, but you're dead wrong if you think he's not an amazing talent). Solid QBs (maybe not so much Palmer anymore), but no one ever talked about them on the elite level except in fantasy circles. For once, I want to see someone say, hey, you know what, that loss was on Sanchez and stop coming up with excuses like age, experience, playcalling, dropped balls, etc. All valid excuses, but you all coddle him way too much and personally, I think you all expect too much. I stand by average to good NFL starter as his ceiling. Call me a moron, but only time will tell who's right. Ask anyone that's not a fan of the Jets and they'll agree with me.
I agree...I'm not ragging on him for what he is now. He can still develop and still has time. I'm just saying I don't see the great or elite potential that most Jet fans apparently see. I don't hate him by any means. I'm just not expecting him to be Tom Brady. I'd say his good games are good, with a couple great games in there, but he's had plenty of bad ones too. His playoff stretch was great. Outside of that, not terribly impressive, and it's completely understandable given his age and experience. Just some of you expect him to develop into much more than I think he will ever become.
I don't think we can say yet what Sanchez's ceiling is. It seems to me that he is very slow to read the field and see defenses. He seems to start having problems whenever you get beyond a primary option and a checkdown. There are plenty of cases where QB's learned to read the field later in their career(Vick probably being the most spectacular example of late). Sanchez does seem to be able to execute scripted plays well(probably why he did well with the 2 minute drill before teams had film of all the plays), but he isn't good at looking at the defense and finding the open man quickly yet. It's hard to separate his problems from Schotty's though. Did Schotty simplify the playbook because of Sanchez or is he holding Sanchez back? I think Sanchez can eventually learn to do this, but probably not in a week unfortunately. It's also nice that he hasn't turned to "bomb it to Santonio Holmes and let him deal with catching it.", which you often see QB's turn into.
