NY Jets players bash Mark Sanchez, say they want Peyton Manning

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http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/fo....1004395?print


NY Jets players bash Mark Sanchez, say they want Peyton Manning and GM Mike Tannenbaum should trade young quarterback away
Teammates rip franchise QB, say he's 'lazy' and 'content'

BY MANISH MEHTA / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NAM Y. HUH/AP

Some Jets grow weary of Mark Sanchez (r.) and would like to trade him and bring in Peyton Manning.


LYNNE SLADKY/AP

Mark Sanchez falls out of favor in the Jets locker room, as teammates call him 'lazy' and 'content.'

A season torn by discord and dysfunction prompted several key Jets players and members of the organization to paint a sobering picture of Mark Sanchez, a polarizing figure within the franchise’s walls.

They raised serious doubts about his ability to lead the Jets, questioning everything from his practice habits to the organization’s coddling of him to how much of a role he truly played in the team making two consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances.

They also invited the opportunity to replace Sanchez with Peyton Manning.

The consensus among players who spoke to the Daily News was that, at the very least, the Jets must sign a legitimate veteran backup to push their young quarterback.

“We have to bring in another quarterback that will make him work at practice,” said one player. “He’s lazy and content because he knows he’s not going to be benched.”

On Dec. 28, Sanchez said that he was “light years ahead” in areas such as defensive recognition, clock management and understanding of the offensive system. Six days later, general manager Mike Tannenbaum said that Sanchez’s “rate of growth isn’t where it needs to be.”

The doubts crept in long before Sanchez stood in front of his locker on a Wednesday two weeks ago.

The Jets already were in free-fall when he tried to brush aside the undercurrent of a season gone wrong. Four days before Gang Green’s meltdown was complete under the South Florida sun with a 19-17 loss to the Dolphins, a final dagger in a season that began with so much promise and hype, Sanchez insisted that he didn’t need to validate himself as the starting quarterback.

“I’m not out to prove anything like that to people,” Sanchez said four days before the Jets finished out of the playoffs at 8-8. “I just want to work hard for these guys on the team. These guys know I’m leading by example. These are the guys I’m playing for right here in this locker room and in this building.”

Sanchez’s season was a microcosm of his three-year career, a confounding blend of good, bad and ugly. He threw for a career-high 26 touchdowns and committed a career-high 26 turnovers (18 interceptions, 8 lost fumbles). He helped the Jets lead the league in red-zone touchdown efficiency (65.5%) with 21 touchdown passes inside the 20 (fifth best in the NFL). He also committed nine turnovers during the Jets' season-ending three-game slide.

Since entering the league in 2009, Sanchez has thrown for the second-most interceptions (51) and committed the second-most turnovers (63) in the NFL.

His inconsistent play has teammates wondering if the Jets can upgrade. Several players and members of the organization were asked if the Jets should make a play for Peyton Manning if the Colts, who are expected to select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the No. 1 pick in the draft, release him.

“Come on. That’s a no-brainer,” a Jets source said. “If you have a chance to get a healthy 36-year-old Peyton Manning and you don’t do it, then you’re stupid. If I could get a healthy 36-year-old Peyton Manning, then, hell yeah, I would trade Sanchez.”

Sanchez’s teammates didn’t hesitate when asked if the Jets should pursue Manning if he is medically cleared after his recent neck surgeries. They believed that the presence of consultant Tom Moore, who was Manning’s offensive coordinator and mentor during their decade-long run together in Indianapolis, would be a bonus to lure Manning to New York.

“We already have his coach — Tom Moore,” one well-respected player said. “Plus, he’s a field general and will get everyone lined up. He will get his playmakers the ball. We can win a Super Bowl with Peyton.”

But can the Jets hoist the Lombardi Trophy with Sanchez?

“How can we when he’s not improving at all?” one of Sanchez’s teammates said. “He thinks he is, but he’s not. He has shown us what he’s capable of.”

Sanchez, who has two years remaining on his rookie contract, wasn’t the lone culprit on the 25th-ranked offense. He was sacked 39 times. Edge pass rushers routinely beat left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and right tackle Wayne Hunter, who allowed a combined 19 sacks — or 48% of the team total, according to Pro Football Focus. Sanchez lost confidence after getting hit so many times, according to several teammates. One Jets source admitted that Sanchez “worked his ass off” to correct his mistakes in meetings, but he was soon buried under an avalanche of offensive breakdowns on game days.

“At one point, he was looking at the (pass) rush and wasn’t seeing the receivers,” a team source said. “I think that’s a lack of confidence in what we’re doing. I think that's a lack of confidence in how we’re protecting him... When you get hit the way that he got hit, there were some quarterbacks that wouldn’t have made it through the season.”

Some of Sanchez’s teammates thought it was unfair to pin a lost season all on their young quarterback.

“Everybody got down on the quarterback,” a Jets source said. “But they weren’t looking at the situations we were putting him in. I don’t think he’s as bad as people are making him out to be. When the ---- started snowballing and he lost confidence, he never recovered. Then, you saw him making one stupid throw and one stupid mistake after another.”

The complex game plans didn't help matters, according to several people. Sanchez had difficulty absorbing the weekly wrinkles and changes, teammates said.

“So many games, he looked defeated before he ever took the field,” a team source said. “He didn’t have much confidence in what he was about to go do. You could tell throughout the week in practice. He never felt comfortable with some of the things we were doing. It was too much for him.”

Other teammates were less forgiving. They pointed to Sanchez’s career arc as reason for change.

Sanchez has finished 29th, 29th and 27th in completion percentage in his first three seasons. His passer-rating rankings: 28th, 27th and 23rd.

He has taken a step back in yards per attempt each season from 6.7 to 6.5 to 6.4. Rex Ryan admitted that the inability to stretch the field was one of his primary concerns all year. Sanchez completed a league-worst two passes of 40-plus yards this season. By comparison, Tim Tebow completed three passes of at least 40 yards in the second quarter of the Broncos’ wild-card overtime win against the Steelers Sunday.

Although Sanchez won four road playoff games in his first two seasons, some teammates remained critical, pointing to the successful rushing attack and defense as the key reasons for the Jets’ success in 2009 and 2010.

A couple weeks ago, Sanchez dismissed a report that he was being coddled. His teammates disagreed.

“They don’t want to be truthful with him,” one prominent player said of the way that the organization has handled Sanchez. “They treat him like a baby instead of a man. He goes in a hole when someone tells him the truth.”

A Jets spokesman declined to make Sanchez available for this story. A source close to the team pointed out that Sanchez’s inability to handle mounting criticism prompted him to unfollow every Jets beat writer on Twitter earlier this season.

“So that should tell you everything,” the source said. “He just doesn’t have the mental toughness to be great... especially in New York.”

Some in the organization told The News that many of Sanchez’s teammates have grown resentful for myriad reasons.

“They see the organization babying him,” said a Jets source. “They see him with a sense of entitlement. He’s been given all this and hasn’t done anything. They call him ‘San-chise.’ They make him the face of the organization. They gave him the captain tag. He’s not a captain. He should have never been a captain.”

None of the players who spoke to the Daily News for this story agreed with Ryan’s decision to anoint Sanchez as a captain.

On Dec. 28, Sanchez denied the notion that he was a victim of a high standard set by going to two AFC Championship Games in his first two seasons.

"We hold ourselves to a high standard,” Sanchez said. “I don’t want to feel like I’m a victim or anything like that. We expect to win... I don’t feel like we’ve set the bar too high. There is no way. I don’t feel like that.”

Six days later, Sanchez expressed a much different outlook.

“You go to back-to-back AFC Championship Games, and everybody thinks, ‘OK, we’ll just get a little bit better and you are winning the Super Bowl,’” Sanchez told ESPN Radio on Jan. 3. “I don’t want to make excuses at all. That’s not my style. But we’ve kind of been a victim of our own success.”

The hope for some players this offseason is that the Jets will pursue Manning if he is healthy and available. Of course, there is no guarantee that Manning would choose them even if owner Woody Johnson and Ryan put on an all-out blitz.

“I don’t think that he’ll come here,” a member of the Jets organization said. “We have to change the perception of our organization. We’re not the organization that players said they wanted to play for a year or two ago. We’re starting to come across a little flaky. We talk the talk. We don’t back it up. We’re out of control. There’s no discipline. It’s a mess right now.”

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