Mark Sanchez being benched for the final two games of the season should be no surprise to any Jets fan who’s been watching this god-awful offense. Greg McElroy deserved the chance to start weeks ago with Sanchez becoming a turnover machine this season. Now, it’s not all Sanchez’s fault. He doesn’t have a lot to work with on offense with key injuries and not much depth.
GM Mike Tannenbaum is known as a salary cap guru and a numbers guy. His track record as a GM leaves much to be desired, and in a couple of years, he’s taken back to back AFC Championship Game runners-up and put them in a huge hole for years to come.
The Jets brought in Tim Tebow, which the Jets had to give up two draft picks to get, and they had no clue how to use him. Tebow is as good as gone at the end of the season. The Jets wasted two picks for a guy they really didn’t use and that hurts depth for your team.
Mark Sanchez was given a generous contract extension at the end of last season, even though he did not have a very good year, which made him the seventh highest paid QB in the league. Now the Jets are on the hook for $8.25 million guaranteed for next year, whether Sanchez is on the team or not. Simply cutting him would result in a larger cap hit, which will impact their ability to sign free agents going into next season.
They had very little depth at wide receiver after starter Santonio Holmes was lost for the season. They relied on rookie second round pick Stephen Hill who has shown flashes of being really good, but also of making rookie mistakes and dropping key passes. He has been hurt this year as well.
These are just a few examples of some of the mistakes made at the top. Assuming coach Rex Ryan returns, which is a big assumption, his first mission must be to let offensive coordinator Tony Sparano go. He has been terrible in his play calling and just looks lost on the sidelines. The Jets have had trouble moving the ball, even against some pretty bad teams. They scored just 7 points against the Cardinals and 10 against the Titans Monday night, where they had five turnovers in that game alone.
Sanchez has regressed and the team needs a solid coordinator that knows offense and can develop quarterbacks. Ryan has even said he doesn’t know much about the offense and only recently has started attending offensive meetings.
Right now owner Woody Johnson has a lot of questions to answer and it needs to be soon. Everyone in the front office, including Tannenbaum and Ryan, are potentially on the chopping block right now. The Jets need to get their front office sorted out first before they can start to think about next season’s roster.
Grab Bag…
The Jets have been linked to Michael Vick coming to the team next year. I don’t think that will happen for a few reasons. For one, he wants more money than Sanchez is getting and with the salary cap constraints on the Jets, that will be tough to handle. Another main reason I think they need to look elsewhere is that Vick is very injury prone. He has had concussion problems as well as other injuries due to him getting hit many times behind a suspect line in Philly. He is also getting up there in age and the Jets need to groom a young quarterback for the future.
I believe they should stick with McElroy and try to pick up a solid veteran to bridge the game, potentially Carson Palmer from the Raiders. He will be a free agent at the end of the season. They need to look to the draft to find a quarterback of the future. Multiple sources have mentioned that McElroy is looked at as a solid backup and not considered the long term starter. I believe these next two games will prove he’s better than that and has starter potential, but only time will tell.
