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“Well, I think part of that, too, is ESPN didn’t necessarily sneak in overnight at our training camp,” Sanchez told Fox Sports Radio. “They had to get permission to go. You can avoid that stuff on your own if you like, in my opinion.”
Then he followed that up, switching to the high road, with a disingenuous line – “He’s a special person and a heck of a competitor, so people want to know what’s going on.”
I hear he doesn’t even like Tebow.
“I just don’t know if it was the best situation for either of us, but you play with the cards you are dealt with and do the very best you can,” Sanchez said
Okay, if you are playing the cards you are dealt, why go there now? Let it go. Tim Tebow isn’t going to be in the quarterback competition this year. His days with the team are likely numbered.
“It’s cool. We’re good,” Sanchez said. “He’s a nice guy. He works hard and that’s good. It’s honestly, after the shock of the whole thing, was something you were going to have to deal with. I’m dealing with it the best way I can and trying to stay positive about the whole thing, and I think it’s not on my mind. I’m concerned right now with learning a new system and being the best quarterback I can be, and hopefully that helps the team.”
For Sanchez to say, “I think it’s not on my mind,” is pretty hard to buy after what he said on the radio show.
It certainly sounds like it’s on his mind.
Here is my issue with this.
Should the Jets have made the Tebow trade? Probably not.
Did a three-ring circus come to town with him? Absolutely.
Was it an ideal situation for Sanchez? No.
But it almost sounds like Sanchez is blaming his lousy 2012 campaign on Tebow’s presence, and that is a little bit of a reach. He wasn’t great the year before, either.
Mark rarely points the finger at himself.
One thing I loved about guys like Ray Lucas and Chad Pennington is when they played poorly, they fell on the sword – didn’t make excuses.
Sanchez doesn’t do this very often, and you get the sense that the quarterback and his camp, generally anoint the blame elsewhere.
When Sanchez imploded against a very average Tennessee defense with five turnovers in a must-win game last year, Tebow was clearly out of the picture – he had a rib injury, and on top of that, it was pretty clear, he wasn’t in the plans.
One week after the Titans looked like the “Purple People Eaters,” that same defense gave up 55 points to Green Bay. The Titans had a bad defense last year.
Tebow or no Tebow, Sanchez has issues as a quarterback right now – he telegraphs passes, panics when his first read isn’t open, struggles reading defenses and doesn’t do a good job feeling the rush.
Did he have ideal weapons last year? Probably not, but that notwithstanding, he didn’t distinguish himself last year, either.
Honestly, I just don’t know if this can work.
Will he be able to make any mistakes at home without getting boo’d? Probably not. His Q Rating is very low right now in the Jets’ Nation. The karma isn’t great.
And his comments today probably aren’t going to help.
Sometimes you wonder if perhaps it’s time to move on, and eat the contract. Maybe he needs a fresh start somewhere else. Perhaps they can trade him and tell the suitor they will eat a lot of the contract.
After all, since they are paying so little at the position right now, aside from Sanchez, with David Garrard, Greg McElroy and a likely second or third round QB, the expenditure at the position wouldn’t change much, whether he’s there or not.
He’s a sensitive guy, and the 2012 debacle is still clearly bothering him.
I was doing a Sirius XM NFL Radio Show recently, and we had a beat writer from Kansas City on the show, and I asked him about the release of Matt Cassel.
“They just couldn’t sell him to the fans anymore,” the writer said.
And you have to wonder if that dynamic now exists with Sanchez and a big chunk of the Jets’ fans
April 19, 2013
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