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So where is Mark Sanchez at with the off-season conditioning program, the OTA’s and the veteran mini-camp in the books? Did he look “sharp” and “elevate his game” as one analyst noted this week?
Let’s take a look.
“Fans might not like to hear it, but Sanchez has looked pretty sharp, he has elevated his game and he looks determined to start the opening game,” wrote Adam Schefter on ESPN.com.
I just don’t know about this.
Was his work this off-season “pretty sharp?”
Did he “elevate his game”?
Those comments seemed a little strong to me.
Before I continue, I wanted to get a few other takes on this from some other observers.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that he has raised his game,” said one beat writer. “Don’t know who told Adam Schefter that, but I haven’t seen it. And also, it’s not tackle football, so it’s hard to tell if he’s raised his game until preseason games.”
“The only part I agree with is he’s determined to start,” said another beat writer.
“I didn’t know Schefter was at a lot of practices to come to that conclusion,” said one long-time Jets observer. “He may be right but I didn’t hear it.”
Schefter wasn’t there, but in his defense, it’s hard for him to do that since he has to cover all 32 teams.
Perhaps he got some guidance from an agents at “Athletes First.” He’s very plugged into the agent community.
But instead of wasting a lot of time guessing where he got his perspective from, let’s analyze it.
It was a little strong.
Was he better than Geno Smith in the spring?
I think most would agree that was the case.
But Smith is very raw right now. He could be terrific time, but at this stage he’s a project.
So to say that Sanchez was better than Smith is accurate, but that just because he was better that Smith doesn’t mean he “elevated his game” or was “pretty sharp.”
Right now the Smith bar is pretty low. Smith should get better in time, but right now being better than him doesn’t mean that you deserve high praise for your work.
Sanchez still has a lot of work to do this summer, in training camp, and in the preseason games, to erase some of the enormous doubts about his game coming off last season.
The wide receiver play in the spring was spotty, so we need to keep that in mind when talking about the quarterbacks.
And there were a lot of injuries at wide receiver which kept some quality talent off the field.
We also need to cut a little slack to the quarterbacks and pass game targets for some of the inconsistent play in the spring. There was a tremendous amount of learning going on, as the Jets put in their third offensive play book in three years. That isn’t very good for player’s development.
Player’s heads were spinning. There is no question that when you are constantly thinking what you are doing out there, trying to figure out what you are supposed to do, and where you are supposed to be, instead of just going out and doing your thing, it hurts your focus and production.
I think we will see better play from the Jets’ passing game this summer.
So right now Sanchez is still a major question mark. It remains to be seen if he can bounce back from a couple of bad seasons, and become the true answer.
But right now he’s better than Smith, and has an edge over the kid for the starting quarterback job. However, let’s not take this perspective, and act like he’s coming off a strong spring. This is probably a little too kind.
June 19, 2013
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