Pennington played considerably better in 2006 than Sanchez is playing right now with no where near as much talent.
17 TD/16 INT is nowhere near 'considerably better' under any circumstances - granted, he had much less talents but that does not account for his 16 INTs.
He had an offensive line of Ferguson, Kendall, Mangold, Moore and Clement. Those guys were far above what the Jets have on the line now. Clement was the weakest link and he had already started 4 full seasons at RT before the Jets got him.
Dont you remember all the Brick is a bust talk. Mangold was good but not anywhere near as good as he is now. Brick struggled a lot early on. Hardly as solid as an O line as we had the last 2 years.
I would take it one step further. When Sanchez drops back on a 5 - 7 step drop and his first read is there he can stick his foot and throw a strike as well as anyone. When it isn't there he seems to panic, and he is all over with his feet. 3 step drops forget about it. By the way did anyone catch the lions bears game. Anyone see how Cutler handled the CONSTANT pressure? The rush was JUST as bad as our Ravens game.
Cutler's also had a ton of games where the rush caused him to toss up 3 or 4 picks or get sacked 5-10 times. Maybe he's gotten better at dealing with pressure because of all of his experience with it, but I think it's more likely that he was just a streaky QB who happened to be in the zone last night.
I'd definitely say better than Sanchez has played the past two weeks. We can argue semantics all we want, but the fact of the matter is our embarrassingly overpaid, 3rd year quarterback isn't playing that well. He needs to get better.
That's because we have an LG who is okay at best, a hurt Center and RG, a RT who has played shitty to marginal this season, and since Mangold has played in 9 quarters this season out of 20, his absence fucked up the continuity and the line calls. Last week was the first game where Sanchez wasn't running for his life. Unfortunately, Sanchez's internal clock still was fucked up. He's gotta trust his line again, and Schotty has to get him to throw passes that are confidence builders. That's the only thing that's going to save the offense.
I didn't say last two years, I said now. The line we had the last two years was 5x better than what we have now. The line in 2009 was one of the best Jets offensive lines of all time even with Faneca whiffing in pass protection now and then.
Saddening but true. The Jets need to draft or FA the OL into a top 5 line again, or this team won't sniff a SB for a while. And the defense needs a stalwart in the front 7. Not just good players, someone who touches the realm of Revis' talent, but a LB or DL. Something. The scheme can't protect these guys for the next 4 years.
Blind squirrel - nut. It happens now and then. Cutler actually has a rep for not handling pressure well at all. Look at the NE and GB games in 2010 for examples and he's had a bunch like that over the years. Really any QB that comes under constant pressure is going to get rattled and throw picks. When the Jets pressure Tom Brady he throws picks against them. When they pressured Peyton Manning effectively they got the same result. Mark Sanchez is no different from any other QB when it comes to pressure. They all fail consistently with an occasional success here and there when everything falls just right on a play.
We don't need a top 5 ol to win. GB and Pitt did not have great lines last year, but their quarterbacks were tough and mobile playmakers. We only need a top 5 line if we plan on doing grground and pound all the time. We need to adjust to a more passing offense if we don't improve the line. The run is heavily reliant on a great OL, and Greene/LT certainly aren't superstar backs that can overcome that. Can Sanchez play well without a great line? Early polls are saying no, but its far too early to know for sure. Of course, he hasn't been that good even when he's had time. He's still young enough where he deserves time, and he's not so bad where you cant win with him. But every game he makes the same mistakes, my confidence in him becoming an elite QB fades just a little bit.
I cant see how the constant shuffling of WR's and Shotty's system can help any QB. Especially Mark Sanchez.
This is like the chicken and the egg. My issue with Sanchez and a big complaint I am forming is his lack of smarts. He seems to make a similar mistake over and over and over again. He mistakes simple coverage, stares down targets and gets baited too much. How that dovetails into this discussion...... The Ed Reed play. How the fuck can a 3rd year QB not recognize this? Not shift the line, shift the protection? That dovetails to a player I normally champion here, Brick: Same issue, how the fuck can a LT, a very good pass protecting LT, not recognize and signal or call out to the QB to shift protections? That sack could have and should have been prevented. Is it lack of preparation, lack of recognition, a simple mistake because Mangold called everything or did they see something else? To me, that is a perfect example of how a smart QB can help the line and or a smart line help the QB. Lets face it, the work ethic of Peyton and Brady are never questioned. You can add Brees into that mix. They don't seem to get into that kind of trouble even with mediocre to poor lines and/or solid lines with injuries. I would like to see examples of Sanchez doing stuff like that. Beyond the stuff about slow or not slow release, too small and all the superfluous reasons he isn't good, I think it comes down to smarts at this point......take it for what it's worth, it's just an opinion. Edit: The above elite QB's I name, do get sacked and do lose games. However, lets call a spade a spade and say that they recognize and win their matchups more often than not. So please I am not interested in semantics....
I don't think you can compare Sanchez directly to QB's who started 3 years in college. He's always going to be developmentally behind those guys when you look at a given year and try to compare them. That said, I think Brady and Brees are kind of singular talents alongside Peyton Manning, and I think Rodgers got a long apprenticeship in the NFL before he had to produce. I would not compare Sanchez to any of them because I do not think he is as talented as the first three and he clearly has not had the opportunity to sit and learn that Rodgers had in Green Bay.
