Premium – Who can it be now?

The New York Post had a story that garnered a lot of attention today about Mark Sanchez, quoting another team executive saying he would start for his club . . .

The headline of the story read – “Teams say Sanchez in high demand if Jets cut him.”

In the story, you had this paragraph – “One coach of a quarterback-needy team said his team already has discussed Sanchez internally as an option to be its starting quarterback in 2014.”

Then you had the quote that grabbed a lot of attention all over the internet today –

“We’d take Sanchez,” the coach said. “He’d be the starter as soon as he walked in the door for us.”

As the musical group, “Men at Work,” once sang, “Who can it be now?”

First of all, I’m sure the Jets would love to know who it is so they could nail the coach, and his team, for tampering.

In the NFL, you aren’t supposed to talk that way about players currently on other teams.

So with that being said, it’s surprising that a coach would say that.

And it’s not hard to narrow down the candidates.

When I tweeted this quote, some fans guessed that it was Cleveland.

But how could the Post quote a coach from a team that currently doesn’t have a coach?

So that rules them out.

Other teams that need a quarterback are Oakland, Minnesota, Houston and Jacksonville.

Perhaps you could throw in Tennessee and Tampa Bay. It all depends on how the new head coach of each of those teams feels about the young starting quarterbacks on those clubs.

Let’s look at the obvious teams.

Does the writer know Dennis Allen, Mike Zimmer, Bill O’Brien or Gus Bradley?

Not that I’m aware of.

The only connection between the writer, and any of those guys, would be that the writer went to Penn State, where O’Brien coached the last two years.

But O’Brien is a Belichick disciple. Belichick guys are tight-lipped, and it’s rare for them to provide anything to the media – on or off-the-record.

Look, I’m not trying to conduct a witch hunt here, but this quote was so powerful, I think we all want to know where it came from.

I asked one long-time writer what coach he thought this writer knows well

The long-time writer responded, “Bruce Bochy.”

Bochy is the manager of the San Francisco Giants.

The writer of this Post story covered baseball for a long time before taking over the Jets beat a few years ago.

I have to admit, I found this quote a little surprising.

While I do think Sanchez will get a job if the Jets cut him, his last two years as a starter were rough, so for a coach to say, “He’d be the starter as soon as he walked in the door for us,” I thought was a little strong.

Would I bring him in to compete for a job?

No question.

Should he be the starter “as soon as he walked in the door?” I wouldn’t go there.

First of all, none of us know how he’s going to bounce back from shoulder surgery.

Secondly, where is he at mentally after two rough seasons, and then another on the shelf?

Hey, he could bounce back very well, but none of us know.

But the one silver-lining for this quote for the Jets is it definitely makes them think – “Hey, we can get something for this guy in a trade.”

However, there is a slight problem – Sanchez is owed a $2 million roster bonus in March, so the Jets might have to release him before they can shop him, unless they are willing to eat that money, or he renegotiates.

You can’t start making trades until March 11 when the league year starts.

There is always a chance they keep him around.

Hey, they need an experienced option if Geno Smith doesn’t look like the answer early in the season. The Jets have missed the playoffs three years in a row. They HAVE to make the playoffs next year. No excuses.

So maybe Sanchez could be that insurance policy.

We shall see how this all plays out.

But that quote does make you think – “Hey, Sanchez might be in more demand than we thought.”

January 22, 2104

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