Great Judy Battista piece on the end of Sanchez

[T0mShane]

Mark Sanchez-New York Jets marriage ending in fitting fashion

Judy Battista

NFL Media reporter

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000253697/article/mark-sancheznew-york-jets-marriage-will-end-in-fitting-fashion

When Mark Sanchez finally is released by the New York Jets after this season, with the $8 million that forestalled their divorce in his pocket and his labrum repaired by surgery, the quarterback's tenure in Gotham will be summed up with a series of shocking highs and astounding lows, of dating starlets and being booed by Knicks fans, bookended by two consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances and a butt-fumble.

But nothing should stand as a monument to Sanchez's absurdist period with the Jets like the scene that unfolded minutes after it all but came to an end, with a table being wheeled into Rex Ryan's news conference so the Snoopy Trophy could have an appropriate place of honor.

The Snoopy Trophy, after all, is why the Jets coach put Sanchez into an Aug. 24 preseason game against the New York Giants, after Geno Smith essentially had played his way out of the starting job with a miserable performance that looked a lot like the one he put together this past Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. MetLife annually awards the hardware to the winner of the preseason bout between the two tenants of the stadium bearing the insurance company's name. And Ryan inexplicably inserted Sanchez into the second half of that preseason game, behind second- and third-string offensive linemen who would not even make the Jets' roster, against defensive players desperate to make an impact.

Because this is the Jets, the ridiculously predictable happened: Sanchez was hit by a Giants player who did not even make their team, suffering what turned out to be the torn labrum that will have ended the quarterback's stint in New York.

The Jets never have admitted it was a mistake to put Sanchez into that situation -- they were trying to win the game, Ryan laughably insisted -- but Ryan's shell-shocked visage that night, with Snoopy bearing witness, told the real tale. That was the night Ryan turned sideways during his news conference, but he knew by then that his season had just been turned upside down. His rookie quarterback wasn't ready, his veteran had suffered a significant injury and he was stuck with a mess of the Jets' own creation with his job on the line.

That the Jets are 2-2 with Smith does not excuse how poorly they handled Sanchez. However the season turns out, however Ryan and general manager John Idzik emerge from the morass of penalties and turnovers, it will be a black mark on the 2013 New York Jets.

Would this team have gone to the Super Bowl with Sanchez under center? No. But make no mistake: Sanchez almost certainly was going to be the starter after Smith melted down in that preseason game, and you don't need an MRI to read the results of the Jets' confounding decision-making now that the season is a month old. The Jets barely have escaped with victories against similarly limited and undisciplined teams. When they took a step up in class, facing off against the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans, they lost -- the latter in humiliating fashion Sunday in Nashville.

Maybe Sanchez wouldn't have done any better. In the preseason, after all, he still was a quarterback who made the same mind-numbing mistakes at times. But let's think about the bigger picture here. A clearly perturbed Ryan gave Smith a limited vote of confidence Monday when asked if he was considering benching the rookie -- "It's not a thought at this point right now," he said -- and sticking with Smith is the right decision. But wouldn't it be nice to at least have a viable option besides inexperienced Matt Simms and too-new-to-know-the-playbook Brady Quinn if Smith doesn't improve and his confidence is in peril? Now that Sanchez is going ahead with the surgery to repair his shoulder, the options officially are erased -- there will be no return from injured reserve, after all -- and so, too, is the marriage between first-round draft pick and the team he was supposed to rescue.

Sanchez has let the Jets off the hook by taking the high road since suffering the injury -- actually, he's done that throughout the past few seasons. He didn't blast the team last season when it acquired Tim Tebow and his circus, and remained mum about his feelings this season. Josh Freeman could learn something about behaving like a professional from Sanchez; it is ironic that Freeman and Sanchez -- two of the three quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft (Matthew Stafford was the first) -- will both enter free agency as highly damaged goods next year.

For almost a year, it has seemed obvious that Sanchez probably would benefit from a fresh start somewhere else, just as the Jets would have been better off had they been able to make a clean break last offseason. The dumbfounding contract extension that former general manager Mike Tannenbaum gave Sanchez as a kiss-and-make-up present after the team's unrequited flirtation with Peyton Manning tied the two together, like cement shoes to a franchise that wanted to swim away from its tortured past.

Instead, Sanchez and the Jets are sinking at the same time. It seems fitting that a cartoon was the impetus for it all.

Follow Judy Battista on Twitter @judybattista.

[LionelRichie]

#1 - Sanchez sucked for the last 2 seasons.   I'd rather give Geno a 16-game tryout and find out if he has anything that watch Sanchez make the same mistakes for a 5th consecutive season and then throw 2014 in the sh*tter for a 16-game Geno tryout.   

 

#2 - I would bet almost anything that Idzik offered Mark a buyout this past offseason that was turned down. 

 

#3 - Don't cry for me Mark Sanchez.   He pocketed a lot more of Woody's money than he ever earned and set this franchise back another 3 years with the ridiculous extension Tannenbaum game him.  

[kay_gee]

#3 - Don't cry for me Mark Sanchez.   He pocketed a lot more of Woody's money than he ever earned and set this franchise back another 3 years with the ridiculous extension Tannenbaum game him.  

 

yeah but Mark Sanchez taking advantage of Mike Tannenbaum's stupidity isn't exactly something I hate him for. I'd do it, too. Anyone would.

[bitonti]

the article is a nice read 

 

several disagreements about the decision to play Mark that fateful evening, and I say this as a Sanchez supporter in preseason: 

 

1) they were actually trying to win the Snoopy cup, no one mentions that Mark played most of the 2nd game behind the same scrubs against Jacksonville. And they blew out Jacksonville. These teams rent a stadium you don't think that trophy means anything? they wheeled it in on a special table right? that preseason game has always been big between these two teams. 

 

2)  couldn't really tell the 1st team ol to put their pads back on. those big guys are like tractors you can't just start em on and off at a whim. It's arguably worse to lose Mangold and Brick than Mark Sanchez. It's not like people plan on getting hurt. Centers and Left tackles aren't as important as QB but the Jets have alot more long term money with those guys. 

 

3) Matt Simms played behind the same scrubs and were fine. Mark was trying to make a play, well after the point at which a good NFL QB had gotten rid of the ball. not since Chad has this team had a QB of the team who can get rid of the ball in a timely fashion. If it wasn't for playing NE 2x a year (sometimes 3), some Jets fans might not even know or remember what that looks like. 

 

and in conclusion Rex doesn't need to put Mark in bubble wrap there's literally no realistic scenario where he comes back as a NYJ in 2014. We are where we are and sh*t happens. 

[Lupz27]

the article is a nice read 

 

several disagreements about the decision to play Mark that fateful evening, and I say this as a Sanchez supporter in preseason: 

 

1) they were actually trying to win the Snoopy cup, no one mentions that Mark played most of the 2nd game behind the same scrubs against Jacksonville. And they blew out Jacksonville. These teams rent a stadium you don't think that trophy means anything? they wheeled it in on a special table right? that preseason game has always been big between these two teams. 

 

2)  couldn't really tell the 1st team ol to put their pads back on. those big guys are like tractors you can't just start em on and off at a whim. It's arguably worse to lose Mangold and Brick than Mark Sanchez. It's not like people plan on getting hurt. Centers and Left tackles aren't as important as QB but the Jets have alot more long term money with those guys. 

 

3) Matt Simms played behind the same scrubs and were fine. Mark was trying to make a play, well after the point at which a good NFL QB had gotten rid of the ball. not since Chad has this team had a QB of the team who can get rid of the ball in a timely fashion. If it wasn't for playing NE 2x a year (sometimes 3), some Jets fans might not even know or remember what that looks like. 

 

and in conclusion Rex doesn't need to put Mark in bubble wrap there's literally no realistic scenario where he comes back as a NYJ in 2014. We are where we are and sh*t happens.

4) Sanchez already had this injury since week 3 2011, the hit just full fledged the tear to unplayable, and all this did was force Sanchez to FINALLY fix his shoulder like he should have over 2 years ago, and force the Jets to move on from Sanchez. Both parties involved should be thankful this happened IMO.

[T0mShane]

Battista is old-school and doesn't write silly sh*t, which is why she lacks that Mehta-Cimini celebrity status. I think she's capturing how the Sanchez Era will be remembered very soon around the league--that a star-crossed kid got paired up with a bloviating coach and a dopey owner, and they combined to drag the whole thing to the ground. Sanchez will be remembered (outside of the Jets fanbase) as much for being a victim of circumstance as for being a bust.

[NJ]

That's all very nice Judy and we're all sorry Mark got hurt (well some of us are kinda sort of)

But where is the part of wanting to win the game for the development of the teams general spirit, outlook, and attitude going into the season.

I'm not buying it means NOTHING to a teams personality to win a preseason game. I'm also not saying it creates an immeasurable positive and all stops come out to ensure it.

But this team had nothing but everyone in sports media predicting it would be off the charts horrible and a win with a little grudge emphasis behind it was a good thing.

Sanchez got hurt because the football gods ordained it - not because Rex sent him into an extremely high probability of season ending injury situation.  

Unless those same football gods were about to unfold a story like nothing we had ever seen, Mark Sanchez would never wear a Jet uniform after this coming December 29th anyway. 

Enough drama already.

[Greenseed4]

Great read!

[Sperm Edwards]

This article sucks and she sucks if she really thinks the things she's writing.  She makes it sound like the Jets are somehow worse off; that this ended badly for Sanchez and the Jets.  In reality it only ended up badly for Sanchez.  Like it or not, and I expect most do not, the Jets needed 16 games of QB tryouts to see if we need to draft another in 2014, and Sanchez had no place in that mix.

 

In hindsight it was the best-case scenario for the Jets other than taking literally anything they could get for Sanchez (a conditional 6th rounder in 2015 plus someone eats up $2M of his salary would have gotten it done with GM Spermie).  They had to have a competition to show the players they were going to put the best guys out there.  Unfortunately, Sanchez's upside is that he'd probably make fewer rookie mistakes than Smith (but he'd still a significant number of them).

 

 But wouldn't it be nice to at least have a viable option besides inexperienced Matt Simms and too-new-to-know-the-playbook Brady Quinn if Smith doesn't improve and his confidence is in peril? Now that Sanchez is going ahead with the surgery to repair his shoulder, the options officially are erased -- there will be no return from injured reserve, after all -- and so, too, is the marriage between first-round draft pick and the team he was supposed to rescue.

 

The answer is no, it would not be nice.  Sanchez brings nothing to the table.  Every Jets fan who isn't deluding themselves into believing Sanchez would deliver us to a superbowl on our (sort of) home turf realizes that if Smith is as brutal as yesterday for another game or two then we're better off seeing what Simms can do than anything Sanchez has to offer.  

 

This is a team going through major rebuilding and putting 2014 free agent Mark Sanchez behind center does nothing to accelerate that process.  The QB solution is Smith or Simms or someone not yet on the roster.  But before we go after the latter, the team needs to be sure neither guy they already have is the answer.  Sanchez would provide nothing but a complete and total waste of tryout games.

 

This article is 100% the musings of a lonely woman writing a sympathetic article about Sanchez because she likes cute, rich young men.