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In the New York Daily New article where unnamed Jets ripped Mark Sanchez, Mark Sanchez was called “lazy.” What did the player mean? . . .
“We have to bring in another quarterback that will make him work at practice,” one unnamed player told the Daily News. “He’s lazy and content because he knows he’s not going to be benched.”
The unnamed Jets shouldn’t have used the word “lazy.” It wasn’t the correct word for what he was trying to describe.
“To call him lazy is a bit much,” LaDainian Tomlinson said. ”This is a guy that has worked very hard off the field, in the film room, in the weight room, putting in extra time with the coaches early in the morning after practice when everybody is gone. He’s not lazy.”
Everyone around the Jets knows Sanchez isn’t lazy. His work ethic isn’t the problem here – it’s reading defenses and pocket presense.
Sanchez works very hard, but he just has certain limitations as a quarterback.
The unnamed Jets player was clearly trying to say that Sanchez is “competitively lazy” from a team standpoint, because he never feels his job is in jeopardy.
Job insecurity is a great motivator, and that dynamic has never existed with Sanchez on the Jets.
During his three years with the Jets, if a reporter asks Rex Ryan about Mark possible being replaced, the coach looked at you like you were nuts, and tells you it will never happen.
The media and public cut Rex some slack on this one the last couple of years because Mark Brunell was the primary backup, and most people assume he can’t play because he’s on the wrong side of 40.
It’s not true, but most people make assumptions about players of a certain age, so the perception was out there that, “you have to keep Sanchez in there because there is no viable alternative.”
That is bull. Brunell, at the very least, can still get you through a few games. He’s smart, gets rid of the ball quickly, and still has a good enough arm.
But that “lazy” perception was out there that the Jets had no viable backup, so Rex could keep Mark in there, and not many reporters or fans complained.
However, if Greg McElroy had no hurt his hand in the summer, and ended up on IR, that would have created an interesting dynamic.
The kid looked really good last summer, playing behind a bad backup line.
If McElroy was healthy, there would have been people clamoring to give Greg a chance.
Well, he’s now healthy, so if Sanchez continues his poor play, Rex has no more excuses.
Granted McElroy’s arm isn’t a howitzer, and that will be held against him, but from watching him last summer, in camp and in games, he can clearly read defenses better than Sanchez.
You see, no matter how hard some quarterbacks work, pocket presense and field vision never seem to improve.
There is only so much you can teach quaterbacks, because so often, when the real bullets are flying, they go back to their mental default settings.
And right now, Sanchez looks like a guy who panics if his first read isn’t open, and isn’t good at going through his progressions.
McElroy looks much better in this department.
So Sanchez isn’t lazy, not at all. His issues have nothing to do with his work ethic.
But the bottom line is he needs to be pushed by McElroy or maybe a free agent like Donovan McNabb, pictured above.
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