He didnt "win" the job, the job was conceivably given to him. He didnt earn it. If he did earn it, he wouldnt have been in the game. Just because Geno played like a rookie in his first true preseason action, doesnt say anything about Sanchez as a player. He proved he was the same old inconsistent QB the entire preseason- 2 great drives and number of bone headed turnovers and mishaps. I dont really think he has the right to be pissed.
I have never understood why so many people have ignored this point. Whatever any fan might have believed should have been the case, it was always pretty obvious to me that Sanchez had not won the job in the eyes of Ryan and Idzik, or he would not have been put back in the game. If anything, it was Ryan trying to do Sanchez a favor by giving him the opportunity to put up some points against the Giants' scrubs, thereby putting him further ahead of Smith. I think Sanchez probably realized that, which is why (assuming this story is true) he was angry at Idzik, not at Ryan. I also think any notion that the Jets did Sanchez dirt is absurd. He got paid a whole lot of money to be possibly the worst QB in the NFL in his fourth season, and to not play in his fifth season. Hardly a terrible life.
We agree. I wasn't saying that I thought he was right, just that I personally had no confusion at all as to why Sanchez could possibly be mad at Idzik. My post was my perspective on why he might have been so cranky, if the tantrum story is true.
While Rex throughout his tenure has always preached competition at the positions, he obviously is a little more loyal to the vets - at least those that can play. Idzik set the tone for competition throughout. I'm pretty sure Rex was ready to give Sanchez the job but Idzik's demand of competition and the "competition isn't finished" line forced Rex's hand to play Mark in that 4th qtr. I think it was good to have this competition at every position but I think the decision at the QB level was not handled properly. Mark as a perosn/human has done everything right as the face of the franchise and as a teammate (o.k. there was that 17yo at the night club incident). I think he has every right to be pissed. While I don't disagree and I have turned the page on the Sanchez era - why is it that Sanchez is making "the same old bone headed turnovers and mishaps" but Geno "won the competition" when he looked even shittier than Mark? No one will ever know if Mark could have come out guns blazing under MM, David Lee and a slightly upgraded OLine. As I have said repeatedly, the Sanchez era is over, and I am rooting for the guy under center - no matter who it is. But to continuously throw Mark out with the trash when he finally had a competent offensive coaching staff is just blatantly unfair.
I never said Geno won the competition. No one really did. Luckily, Geno has played well enough to warrant the starting job. Both of them were inconsistent and made bad decisions in the preseason, but I would have preferred going with a rookie making bad decisions and seeing what we have vs a 5th year vet making bad decisions. It may be unfair to Mark, but at the same time he was given the opportunity to take the job, and he didnt. Thats on no one else but Mark. If Mark truly responded to the coaching change and picked up his game, there is no way he is in that Giant game, and there is no way he is injured. He had the opportunity to win the job with a new system and OC, but he looked relatively similar to what we are used to (which wasnt very good).
The story can be true. Who wouldn't be upset that after pretty much sealing the qb competition, the GM wants to send you out there with back ups... The decision to play Mark has Idzik written all over it. Rex being a team guy is going to take the fall. Rex gains points in Idziks Book for protecting him from the media wrath. Geno's poor performance sealed the competition as the practices before were BRUTAL for Geno and strong for Mark. It's not upto debate, Sanchez won the qb competition. What's crazy is according many Sanchez sucks bigtime and high school qb's are better. So if Sanchez beat Smith in the qb battle, what does that say abt Smith? Not much except, maybe Mark is not as bad as many ppl perceived. Last years debacle doesn't seem to be Mark's fault after seeing him make good reads and throws. Maybe it was the system and poor personnel surrounding Mark. Just watching last game vs Falcons, I haven't seen as many wide open receivers in Jets Uniform. Idzik and his competition theme took a hit, specifically to Mark's right shoulder specifically that dreaded night. Any chance of redemption in NY for Mark was bruised black and blue. We'll never see how well he could've done with a real oc and system.
This couldn't be more incorrect. The New York Jets were very deliberate in saying that the competition that they created and oversaw was NOT complete. As I said earlier, in the context of this discussion it doesn't matter what you personally think WOULD have happened when they made an official announcement. At the point that Sanchez entered that game the competition was still very clearly open - the Jets had very demonstrably avoided closing it in all public statements. It's that old sports expression "play to the whistle". Sanchez, and many Jets fans, felt that not only was he was in the lead in the competition, but that he had won it. He didn't feel he should have had to play to the whistle at that point, and that's his right to feel that way, but there is no arguing that the Jets decision makers had not whistled the competition dead.
Sanchez should be mad at Sanchez for being so bad that he ended up in that situation. Sanchez clearly hadn't won the job, if he had he wouldn't have been playing in the 4th quarter of a preseason game.
Because rookies make a lot of mistakes, even most of the ones who will turn out to be good. Sanchez was a 5th year pro throwing pick-6's to rookie defensive linemen after establishing a pattern of throwing pick-6's to defensive linemen. The context of Sanchez play was more important than the fact that he might have been outplaying the rookie in training camp. He wasn't giving the Jets much confidence that they could put him on the field and not have the problems that got Geno Smith drafted resurface pretty quickly. Sanchez had to play lights out this year in camp to win the job. He had to do that while Geno was playing poorly also. Geno obliged but Sanchez couldn't hold up his end of the bargain and so he didn't have the job at the moment he went in against the Giants. Everything after that is kind of meaningless because barring Sanchez playing very well in that 4th quarter the odds are the Jets would have made a controversial decision to start Geno anyway. It was the plan all along unless Sanchez just blew us away this camp.
Ok, so logically sort this out for me and tell me which of the following propositions seems more likely given what we know about Sanchez recent history with the Jets: 1. The Jets plan all along was to start Geno Smith, however they didn't want to just hand him the job they wanted him to take it. So they set up a competition and hawked that fact at every opportunity, knowing that unless Sanchez played lights out in training camp and Geno sucked the job was going to the new marketable rookie not the veteran albatross who had become the fodder of Benny Hill highlight reels. 2. The Jets plan all along was to have the better performer of Geno and Sanchez take the job in training camp with no consideration of the context or past performances and they'd be happy getting 10% more out of Sanchez this season than out of a raw rookie even if it meant the rookie didn't see the field at all and Sanchez wound up playing like Sanchez. The Jets did hawk the competition a lot this spring and summer. They had to do that because they didn't want to just hand the job to Geno, even though they were probably prepared to do just that if Sanchez didn't play light's out in training camp. There's no point in having a "competition" if it's obvious that it's a sham from the get-go. The rookie gets too comfortable. The veteran gets down and subdued, a hallmark of Mark Sanchez on the field disappointments even as he was saying all the right things in the locker room. You don't get the pressure to bring out the best that you really want to put on the rookie. There was also a small chance that Sanchez, under real pressure for the first time in his career, would suddenly bloom in the way that Alex Smith did and take the job. It wasn't a very big chance but it was there. My thesis is that #1 above is where things stood going into camp and only a great performance out of Sanchez on the field was going to change the end result. I'd further posit that Rex Ryan knew this and that he threw him in the game in the 4th quarter against the Giants because he wanted to give Sanchez his last chance to look great for the Jets and maybe swing the competition. Logically it's what makes sense, because no NFL head coach puts his presumed starter on the field behind backups, especially late in an exhibition game. Rex knew Sanchez was done. He just wanted to give him one more shot to avoid that fate, for which he has been roasted mercilessly by the media and fans. No good deed goes unpunished.
(1) There was no 'entitlement' on Mark's part. He DID win the job outright and anybody who knows anything about football would have realized that. I love when guys here and in the press use the word 'entitlement' as if Mark acted like he had won a few SB's and was showing up to work only from 10 AM - 3 PM every day. Gimme a break....all the reports are the guy is one of the first in and last to leave and has been since 2009. Yet I hear 'entitlement' talk just because he wants to start and believes he should start (production aside, that's another question). (2) The problem was...Idzik wanted MORE competition to see if the 'winner' could flip back to Geno. That's why Idzik was so gung-ho on competition. This capologist wanted to show the NY Press Corps that he knows the X's and O's of football and going to a competitive training camp through Game 4 of the preseason was part of that narrative. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. Woody Johnson -- who shouldn't be intervening but is once again -- decided last year he hated Mark and didn't want him back. I'm sure Idzik (and maybe even Rex) know that and the sad truth is that Mark's injury, instead of backfiring on the Jets, gave them a sense of security that they would be OK going forward with Geno. Johnson only has to worry about 2014 and later and Mark taking another team to a Super Bowl or developing into a Top 10 QB. If that happens, it's another muff by ownership. If not, they get away with their crass behavior.
I've been reading Stat's post for a few years now. If any member on this board knows football better then he does, they haven't posted in years.
