Absolutely scheme. If you run a scheme that allows defenses to cheat within ten yards of the line of scrimmage then you also allow them to tee off on the quarterback. If you run a predictable scheme then you make it easier for the defense to blitz effectively. If you run a scheme that doesnt involve the receivers running past the first down marker on third down then defenses are going to be in the quarterbacks face. Coaching - what was the coaching staff instructing Sanchez to do under pressure? How did they want him to use his checkdowns? What were his checkdowns doing before making themselves available to him? Why would they call 59 passes in a game where power running was required to win? Sanchez has had slower growth than we'd like. He still has gotten better from season to season. Sanchez was 9th in the league in touchdowns in a restrictive offense that almost never went deep. Explain that? I'm not calling this guy elite or even very good. What I am calling him is still our starting quarterback, our quarterback of the future, and a guy whose young and will continue to improve. The numbers support my argument.
You believe what you want to believe. THe metrics in the linked article do not show that Sanchez gets blitzed more than other Qb's. They show that the percentage of times he was pressured where bad things happened were on the whole higher than for any other Qb's in the league. It supports the argument with metrics and stats that make sense. Schemes and coaching have nothing to do with it. The metrics isolate on what happens when Sanchez has the ball and is being pressured. What, the coaches TELL HIM to throw incompletions and take sacks??? DON'T complete a pass??? Of course they don't. It is truly amazing the extent to which his defenders will go. The reason for it is of course clearly implied in your post. You know how bad it would be for the Jets to have to begin a new search for their starting Qb. I do, too, but that does not make Sanchez a better Qb than he is. Which is not very good.
To be clear, I believe Sanchez will be a top 10 QB within the next three years. Year 5 is when a lot of QBs really get over the hump... I expect it will be no different for Sanchez. To run him out of town this young and this promising because he hasn't turned in a 1998 Vinny Testaverde would be shameful. The good teams keep their quarterbacks and see them through for however long it takes to get them to Super Bowl winning quarterback. Just ask San Diego.
OH, he gets another year, to be sure. I never said otherwise. That's not the issue. I just question the optimism and high expectations for him.
Go back and rewatch all six of the playoff games under Rex, including the two losses. The Mark Sanchez you see there is the Mark Sanchez he's capable of being. Mark's biggest problem by far is poor decision making and turnovers. As the game slows down for him he'll make better decisions. Reducing turnovers can be coached. He wouldn't be the first. If we got "playoffs Mark Sanchez" out of him on a consistent basis during the regular season then the Jets would be a really dangerous team. Playoffs Mark Sanchez is easily top 10 in the NFL. I definitely agree he's nowhere near that right now. He has it in him though and that's whats important. He's not a lost cause. Nowhere near it.
why wouldnt you have optimism and high expectations? although last year was a low year for the team and at points he looked bad...he still put up good numbers.
Good numbers? I didn't see good numbers. I saw him come in at 23 in the Qb ranking, and that does not include the Qb's who were injured and didn't make the list who are clearly better than him. He's still in the bottom quarter, realistically. The PFF article I linked shows how the defense of him based on supposedly terrible OL protection does not hold water. He is literally worst in the league handling pressure. Meanwhile he does not read D's well, is a turnover machine and still has a putrid completion percentage. Perhaps most tellingly in terms of his development, he sucked down the stretch in his third year while the team was in a playoff run. Under pressure, he cracked. No good numbers in any of that.
