Despite all the hype and hoopla surrounding the possibility of Peyton Manning joining his brother Eli in New York, the Jets have opted out of the free-agent quarterback market by re-upping Mark Sanchez’s contract.
Any hope that Jets fans held of landing Peyton was almost certainly a far-fetched one, as there has been very little indication of interest from the number 18 towards the Jets. The Jets are a team that tore its way through the American Football Conference (AFC) twice in its first two seasons under Rex Ryan, only to stumble through a scandal-driven 2011 season.
The AFC is far more open than the National Football Conference (NFC) at this point, and the Jets are well placed to make another run in the coming season. But why have they chosen Sanchez as the man to lead their team into battle again?
The Jets drafted Sanchez fifth overall in the 2009 NFL draft and immediately the University of South Carolina quarterback found himself at the centre of media hype, as fans figured the handsome 22 year old could become the next Joe Namath, and lead gang green to glory once more. Rather than hide him behind a veteran QB and allow him to develop with less pressure, the Jets made him their starter in week one.
On a team with such a strongly defined identity and culture Mark is both an excellent fit and a strange anomaly. Everything that defines the Jets at this point comes from their head coach Rex Ryan: the walking antithesis of the modern sporting coach.
Ryan has created a huge profile for himself by being extremely confident, and has placed similarly huge expectations on his team by promising the world, each and every season. Upon his arrival the team immediately assumed the role of the cocky underdog and stormed through the league on the back of a fearsome defence and a mountain of swagger.
Almost every team in the NFL tries to avoid headlines and controversy at all cost, but the Jets instead seek out this source of attention with glee.
Adjusting to life in the NFL is evidently a challenge for many rookies, and doing so in the Animal House atmosphere that is the New York Jets locker room must be doubly so.
Sanchez is clearly someone with an immense amount of confidence, both on the field and off. He was able to command attention in a team stocked with egos, purely through the power of his own charisma and talent. The fact that he took so naturally to strutting around the sidelines like a veteran before he had really earned the right to do so made him a perfect fit for Ryan’s Jets, and his confidence has allowed him to put together some very strong performances at QB.
But Mark still comes across as the man-child on a man’s team at times: goofing around at practices, and pouting on the sidelines when things don’t go his way. Whereas he is surrounded by teammates who are fuelled by aggression and the will to dominate, Sanchez often comes across as more playful than persistent.
Mark was drafted by a team that had promised its fans immediate success, and as such required its quarterback to deliver this immediate success. Even if your star young leader is as sure of himself as Sanchez is, asking him to deliver championship rings within the first three years of his tenure is a ridiculous expectation. But that’s the load that Ryan and the Jets have saddled Sanchez with at the beginning of each of his three seasons as a Jet.
They’ve promised rings, talked up their chances, and each time fallen short in different ways. Rex Ryan is evidently a coach who endorses the approach of “break through or break down” when he has committed to something, and he has clearly nailed his colours to the mast with Mark Sanchez. He believed that Sanchez was going to carry his team to boundless glories when he drafted him, and no amount of evidence to the contrary will change his opinion. In fact, as the pressure mounts on Sanchez, and the calls for the team to seek alternatives grow louder, Ryan has made larger and larger efforts to prove that he believes in Sanchez.
After two seasons where the Jets fell one game short of the Superbowl with an offense built around a brutal running game, Ryan decided to prove that Sanchez was quality by asking him to take more snaps. Unsurprisingly the Jets dropped to eight-eight after a season in which they veered away from what had worked in the past, as they tried to prove that Sanchez could win matches.
At the close of the season Sanchez drew criticism from his teammates for being lazy, and for not showing the improvements the team expected of him. There is some truth to the argument that Sanchez didn’t show much improvement last season, as Football Outsiders’ Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement metric (a measurement of the value a player brings to his team, adjusted for the strength of the defense in which he plays) has ranked Sanchez as the 18th best QB in the league over the past two seasons.
Whilst he has been surrounded by plenty of talent on offense, most metrics do end up pointing to Sanchez being an average QB through his first three seasons, no more and no less.
But the increasing pressure that fell upon Sanchez at the end of the season has prompted Ryan and the Jets to once again prove their commitment to their young prospect, extending his contract for another four years, essentially tying themselves to Sanchez for the next two years. If the Jets don’t make it to a Superbowl (or come incredibly close) in that time, it’s safe to say that Ryan won’t be coaching a team. And if Ryan goes, so does Sanchez.
The fates of each party in this sporting marriage have been fused together at this point, and with mediocrity not being an option (despite stats suggesting that this is exactly what Sanchez brings) they’ll either succeed or fail in spectacular fashion.
Unfortunately the Jets have drafted an average quarterback (not fantastic value at fifth in the draft) when it needed an elite level quarterback, or at least somebody who could play at an elite level long enough to mount a serious tilt at the Superbowl (a la Eli Manning).
Although Sanchez may have fared better in a town like Minnesota where the immediate expectations would not have been as fierce, it’s hard to imagine a town where he’d rather play, and where he’d be more adored for his good looks and his playboy antics.
Similarly, although the Jets might have improved their chances with a more experienced and reliable quarterback Sanchez is a far better embodiment of the franchise’s values than any other player they could have selected. The Jets have decided to carve their own path in a league defined by dull professionalism, and their future success will indicate whether or not you can win rings with a mascot taking snaps in place of a man.
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