Mark Sanchez dishes on Joe McKnight, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and more

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Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez joined KLAC in Los Angeles to talk about his former USC teammate Joe McKnight, who had a rough weekend during the team's first set of OTAs last weekend, as well as the Jets' off-season acquisitions, the loss of Alan Faneca and some of the stories about him that have been popping up in the gossip pages. To listen to the interview, visit Sports Radio Interviews.

On the rough weekend McKnight had in his first practices with the Jets:

Sanchez: My man, Joe, had a tough time. He had a rough first weekend, but from what I hear, he showed flashes. And that's all you need to really show in rookie minicamp anyway, to show a couple of flashes and do all right.

I don't think he was in the very best shape, and I know he was real nervous. I texted back and forth with him, and he was feeling some nerves. He was getting excited about playing and felt like he almost had to do too much.

So once he settled down by Sunday, he got his act together and had a better practice. But he'll be just fine, and I'll help him out when I'm out there, so it'll be fun.

On the Jets' off-seasons moves and if he thinks they signal New York's urgency to try to win now:

Sanchez: I think it felt like that last year, anyway. We had these expectations with a new coach. Sure, I was a rookie quarterback, so people didn't know what to expect, but after the way we started, we knew we could take it far in the playoffs. We knew we could make a serious run.

And now, making the moves that Mr. Tannenbaum, Mr. Johnson and the upstairs part of this facility did, I mean, they felt like these guys could really help us win, and they obviously wanted them to contribute right away, and hopefully this year we'll be right where we were last year, and hopefully a step farther. So, I'm thrilled about the decisions.

The guys they brought in aren't just ... you know, a lot of people have questioned their character, but I think they're some of the best guys I've been around. And once they've been in our culture, they've been around other Jets players, once they get around Rex [Ryan], they're all just ready to play, and they just want the season to start now. So I can't wait to play with these guys, and it's a real treat.

Especially a guy like LaDainian [Tomlinson]. ... I grew up with posters of him in my room, and this guy's now on the team.

On being photographed next to Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler recently and whether he's dating her:

Sanchez: Come on guys, you're killing me! No, I met her at an event at the Tribeca Film Festival, and we were both compensated for being there and both happened to be at the same place. So they took all these pictures of us watching the video, kind of doing what we were supposed to do, so it looked like we were awfully close. But yeah, she's a sweetheart, we've hung out across New York. She's a great girl, but I mean she could probably do much better than me.

On the limo full of eight women that he was pictured in following his appearance on Saturday Night Live:

Sanchez: I wish I could say it was a really cool story and tell you something off the air. But it is a harmless story. So, my best friend, Rebecca, who I've known forever, she's like a sister -- she was the first person to get in the car. This other girl I knew from college, her uncle was one of our coaches, and so another girl who you would never touch or try to date because her uncle was a coach and would probably kill you. Then the other girls were their friends, and they got in the car. So I'm like squished in and we go two blocks to this other place and everybody got out and I pretty much never saw those girls again except for Rebecca and the other girl. I wish I had a cooler story, but it was pretty lame.