The old saying goes “if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have any quarterbacks” but what if you have three? The Jets, who play Jacksonville on Sunday, will most likely activate all three quarterbacks on their roster. That means Mark Sanchez, who is back as the starter, will be backed up by Tim Tebow if he’s healthy enough, coming off not playing the last two weeks because of two broken ribs, and Greg McElroy, the savior of last week. McElroy came in last week in the third quarter and led the Jets on a game winning drive to beat the Cardinals and score the only touchdown of the game.
At this stage of the season, given how the Jets are performing on offense, I believe the Jets should have stuck with McElroy. He gave the entire team a spark last week when he came in and led them on their only points of the day. With very slim playoff chances still alive, using Ryan’s words, McElroy gives the Jets the best chance to win now.
Sanchez is not playing with confidence now, and the Jets cannot depend on their defense every week to hold teams to just 6 points, as they did in last week’s 7-6 victory. McElroy moves well in the pocket and is a very smart quarterback. He does not force things and plays within himself. He has had success at the position. Last weekend, Sanchez was 10 of 21 for 97 yards with 3 INTs and a passer rating of 21.4. McElroy had a passer rating of 118.5 as he finished 5 of 7 for 29 yards and 1 TD.
Just a couple of years ago, McElroy won the national championship with Alabama as the starting quarterback. He does have limitations with arm strength; however, the Jets had one of the best quarterbacks in the team’s history in Chad Pennington and he came out of college labelled with a lack of arm strength as well. All Pennington did was win games! Accuracy trumps arm strength every time, and Sanchez is completing 55 percent of his passes this season. He is 32nd in the league in passing efficiency and 33rd in completion percentage, and has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns (13 to 12).
If Sanchez does struggle tomorrow, the team would be wise to look to McElroy as the second quarterback and not Tebow. The bottom line is simple: win the game anyway they can or the season is over with three games left to play.
Grab bag…
On the Jets injury front, tight end Dustin Keller missed the last two practices with an ankle injury. He will be a game time decision. Wide outs Stephen Hill [knee] is also a game time decision and Clyde Gates [concussion] did not practice yesterday so will probably be out.
