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Could Sanchez become the next Eli Manning?

Mike Ferrara — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:17:42 +0000

As the New York Jets fall out of contention for the playoffs this year, you can’t help but think about Mark Sanchez’s future with the team. Due to his poor production this year, he has led the Jets to a 6-8 record and is now being replaced for the remainder of the season by third string quarterback Greg McElroy. This replacement is also a slap in the face to Tim Tebow, but that’s beside the point. Sanchez is being ripped to shreds for his awful play the past two seasons but as New Yorkers, have we seen this before?

Years ago, our very own Eli Manning, did not get off to the best start to his career. In fact, in his first four seasons he had similar numbers to Mark Sanchez’s career (four seasons).

Sanchez has passed for 11,887 with 68 touchdowns and 68 interceptions and helped the Jets reach the AFC Championship game in his first two seasons as a pro. In Eli’s first four seasons, he passed for less yards, 11,385, but threw for a better touchdown/interception ratio with 77/64. Even though Eli has always seemed to have a more promising career since he was drafted, he had his Sanchez moments in his early years.

As faith would have it, Eli went on to win the Super Bowl at the end of his fourth season and has showed no signs of slowing down ever since. He has greatly progressed and has truly become an elite quarterback when he won his second Super Bowl ring. Since 2010, it seems as though Sanchez has regressed mightily.

I am in no way saying that Sanchez could ever amount to what Eli has become, but stranger things have happened. If I were the Jets, I would let him finish the season out and give him one more shot at leading this team next year. If he is used properly and has the help of a surrounding cast, he could be extremely valuable. If they let him go, they may regret not giving him that last chance. After all, one man’s trash could become another man’s gold.

Edwards back with the desperate Jets

Mike Ferrara — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:32:20 +0000

The ailing New York Jets have been looking for a receiver all year that could help out Mark Sanchez after Santonio Holmes went down for the season.

Luckily, the Seattle Seahawks released Braylon Edwards Monday from the injury-reserve list.

Edwards played for the Jets in 2009 and 2010 and emerged as one of Mark Sanchez’s favorite targets. He caught 88 passes for 1,445 yards and 11 touchdowns in those two seasons with the Jets.

Seeing that the Seahawks released Edwards, the Jets desperately signed him in hopes that he could be a spark plug in a playoff run for the Jets. This comes weeks after Edwards called the Jets front office a bunch of “idiots”. Desperation is an understatement.

With the Jets remaining schedule being very weak, let’s see if Edwards can help this team or just add to the circus it has become.

New York Giants Not Part of Current Quarterback Carousel

Salvatore Stefanile — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:00:50 +0000

I must admit that it’s pretty nice knowing that the New York Giants have a reliable quarterback leading the way for the team in Eli Manning. I say that as I sat back and watched all the hoopla that surrounded the Peyton Manning chase and how many other teams out there are/were in need of a starting quarterback.

Nov 8, 2009; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (left) and San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers talk prior to game at Giants Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

Take a look at this brief off-season quarterback carousel just so that you can understand where I’m coming from:

The Indianapolis Colts cut Peyton Manning so they can draft Andrew Luck.
Peyton Manning signs with the Denver Broncos after putting the NFL on a three year waiting list. Wait, what? It wasn’t three years? Sure seemed like it.
The St. Louis Rams got a fortune in return from the Washington Redskins so they can take RG3 right after the Colts select Luck.
Matt Flynn signs with the Seattle Seahawks after being Aaron Rodgers’ backup.
Jason Campbell leaves Oakland after having his starting job taken away and signs with the Chicago Bears to become Jay Cutler’s backup.
Kyle Orton does the same thing and goes to backup Tony Romo in Dallas after starting for two teams last year: the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos.
Denver Broncos’ third string QB Brady Quinn moves to Kansas City to become that team’s newest backup QB.
Chad Henne left the Dolphins to challenge for the starting QB job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The New York Jets brought in Drew Stanton to be Mark Sanchez’s new body double.
David Garrard comes back to the league after a one year absence to join the Miami Dolphins.

We have backups becoming starters, starters becoming backups, rookies being drafted presumably to start from day, guys out of the league for a year and one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the NFL cut for a player to have never played a down of professional football before. Confused yet? That’s because it is confusing to keep track of which quarterback is on which team now in the new quarterback driven NFL.

With the signing of Manning to the Broncos there is now another starting quarterback that could be had for the right price: Tim Tebow for a 5th round pick, presumably. The two teams with a most glaring need at a QB, if the 49ers don’t bring back Alex Smith, that is, are the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. You have to include Miami because a Matt Moore/David Garrard combo doesn’t scare anyone.

The Browns were never in the hunt for Manning but aren’t enamored with incumbent QB Colt McCoy and lost out on the RG3 sweepstakes. The Dolphins went all in on Manning but came back empty handed; then their second choice Flynn spurned them for the Seahawks. That leaves the potential of either one of those two teams signing Alex Smith, he of the 49ers, who has no idea of his job status thanks to the Peyton Derby, and the aforementioned Tebow.

Plus there are other potential first round quarterbacks besides Luck and RG3 that could be taken by the Browns or Dolphins like Ryan Tannehill or Brandon Weeden, both of whom, if you ask me aren’t worthy of being selected in the top ten of the draft but might be taken that early because the Dolphins (picking 8^th overall) and the Browns (picking 4^th overall) won’t have any choice other than dangling a future first round draft pick in order to trade back into the latter part of the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft.

By my calculations we might have a total of 11 teams with a new starting QB/quarterback question marks entering next season:

-Redskins – RG3, Vikings – Ponder/Webb?, Jaguars – Gabbert/Henne? Or maybe even Tebow?, San Fran – Smith/Kaepernick/Josh Johnson?, Arizona – Kolb/Skelton? Cleveland – McCoy?, Seattle – Flynn/T-Jax? Titans – Locker/Hasselbeck?, Indy – Luck, Miami – Moore/Garrard? and Denver – Peyton Manning.

11! That is a ridiculous amount of turnover at the most important position in football.

Now you can see why I’m pretty happy that the Giants have Eli Manning and we didn’t have to put up with the Peyton circus and the revolving game of quarterback musical chairs that teams like the Redskins and Dolphins plus players like Tebow and Smith have had to put up with this offseason. Heck, the Giants are even keeping their back-up QB David Carr.

Tall Tales – Giants Jets After Action Review

The Tall Guy — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:02:43 +0000

I know that this is a late posting, but my computer got hit with a major virus, and this is the first chance that I’ve had to post. I apologize for my tardiness, but I hope that everyone understands.

The good news is that the G-Men won the battle of NY, and made everyone’s Christmas a little merrier, unless you’re a Jets fan. By virtue of the win, the Giants still control their own destiny (they would have anyway, with a win over Dallas this coming week), but the Giants’ emotional state is probably better for it. As is typical of the guys in blue, the game was a microcosm of the season: flashes of brilliance with periods of lackluster performance. More after the jump.From a statistical viewing, the game was somewhat even. The punting game was virtually equal, with each team punting 9 times. The Giants had a 43 yard average, while the Jets averaged 42 yards. Tynes drilled two field goals, while Coach Coughlin iced the Jets kicker, and Mr. Folk missed his one attempt. Offensively, the Giants running attack showed some signs of life in the second half. The rushing totals were ordinary, but after only 6 yards gained in the first half the G-Men came up with a respectable tally for the game. Both Jacobs and Bradshaw literally ran over people. 26 attempts for 115 yards versus 25 attempts and 105 yards for the Jets. About even, although it seemed as if the Jets secondary wanted no part of either of the Giants main backs. (more…)

Rapid Reaction, Christmas Edition: Giants-Jets

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:21:45 +0000

Merry Christmas Giants fans!

As expected this was a tight game that was came right down to the end. But no fourth quarter comeback was necessary today. The Giants were ahead 10-7 at half time and never relinquished the lead. It was a huge “road” win for the Giants

-The Giants might have been able to run away with this one earlier if they weren’t on the brutal end of two big calls in the Jets favor. The first was the too many men on the field call on fourth down in the first quarter. It was the right call of course, but take that away and the Giants had a defensive touchdown. Instead, the Jets get an automatic first down and score to go up 7-0. Add it to the list of times the Giants have hurt themselves with penalties in key moments all year.

The second one was, of course, the fumble that Ross recovered and ran back. It was a very close call, but honestly I didn’t think that there was enough evidence to overturn the ruling on the field. Thankfully it didn’t end up costing the Giants anything since Nick Folk missed the ensuing 44-yard field goal.

Then, of course, there was the pair of incomplete pass challenges that didn’t help either. It definitely felt like there were more reviewed plays in this game than any other this season.

-After that first drop by Hakeem Nicks, did anyone else have flashbacks to last week, when early dropped passes could have changed the whole tone of the game? Luckily the Giants managed to hold it together much better than they did against the Redskins.

-I think Darrelle Revis knows who Victor Cruz is now. His 99 yard touchdown reception was the longest play in Giants history, tied for longest in NFL history. (The former longest play by a New York Giant was Earl Morall to Homer Jones for a 98 yard reception in 1966.) That was a beautiful play by Cruz from start to finish, from making Antonio Cromartie miss the initial tackle to staying in bounds to make sure the touchdown stood. He has also now broken Amani Toomer’s single-season record for most receiving yards in Giants history. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that but it’s hard to believe that the Giants signed Cruz as an undrafted free agent.

-Jacquian Williams played one of, if not his best, game of the season. His awareness on his tackles was excellent (including a huge third down stop), he wrapped up well and he had a goal line fumble recovery as well. I was impressed with him today.

-Can someone please explain to me why Tom Coughlin couldn’t challenge the Santonio Holmes fumble? There was absolutely no explanation given to explain why he wasn’t allowed to throw the red flag. Again, it didn’t end up costing the Giants anything as Ahmad Bradshaw scored on the ensuing possession but still. At least we got this, uh, interesting headline as a result:

(Last I checked, the Giants and Jets weren’t even in the same conference, much less the same division.)

-I cannot say enough about how well the Giants defense played, especially in the second half. They gave the Jets almost nothing to work with, put pressure on Sanchez, were stingy on third down for a change, and came up with big turnovers and sacks, and a safety to ice the game. They’ve been heavily criticized in recent weeks- rightly so- but they won the game for the Giants in the second half.

-Overall, the Giants played disciplined football. They weren’t perfect, the running game and offensive line still struggled, a few play calls were questionable, but they didn’t take stupid penalties and won the turnover battle. They played well enough to win, despite some very questionable calls, and it was enough to stay in the hunt for the NFC East division title.

Giants vs Jets: A Conversation with a Jet Fan

Joe Tufaro — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:15:07 +0000

I was able to track down a respectable, intelligent, and quite lovely Jets fan. Here are the answers to the questions I posed to her and a little more about Kristine.

Kristine Reese is an actress, singer and freelance writer living in New York City. She is the lead New York Jets writer and regular contributor of Fantasy Sports and NFL content for Aerys Sports, the only online sports network run entirely by women. She is also a regular contributor to Sports of New York, the lead writer/creator of content for the Hard Ninety Activewear blog and the sole contributor to her own sports blog, gridirongirlnextdoor.com. You can follow her on Twitter @kristinereese or visit www.kristinereese.com for more information on her “day job.”

1. We know Rex Ryan came to town talking, and will leave that way too. I understand the fans loved it in the beginning as he was totally different from the coaches that preceded him. What is the feeling now that it seems to be the same old words over and over again?

Honestly, no. I think people that aren’t fans of the team might view it a lot differently, and I understand that. But to us, it doesn’t really come across as noise but rather a tactic that the media continues to fall for. Once you understand and accept it for what it is, I promise you will be less bothered by it.

Case in point : Instead of allowing the media to continue to dwell on the Jets disappointing performance in Philly, the focus was immediately shifted onto the Jets-Giants showdown thanks to a few soundbytes about big and little brothers.

I happen to think it’s a good way to proceed with the New York media, who always seems to be looking for a new headline. He gives them want they want by providing just enough to satisfy their desire for “controversy” with his declarations and statements that actually do little besides put the burden of responsibility on himself.

I understand that many opinionated “analysts” and “experts” feel this hurts more than it helps, especially when the Jets have a host of issues that they no doubt recognize and know in their heart of hearts. But the players love working for Rex and that, at the heart of things, is what matters most. He has his own way of motivating his team and dealing with the media and that is pretty much that.

I don’t seriously think that everything that comes out of his mouth is gospel or should be considered as such and frankly, I think it’s hilarious that some people do.

2. Mark Sanchez has taken some heat lately. I believe he is a talented QB that has been stunted by not being allowed a learning curve, due to the win now atmosphere. What do you think Mark’s strong and weak points are?

By lately, you mean always, right?

I appreciate your comment and I happen to agree. I have written a lot about Sanchez this season as it is a hot topic of conversation among not only Jets fans, but the national media and NFL audience. Without getting into too much detail, I think he takes entirely too much heat for every little thing that goes wrong, this past weekends loss being a perfect example. I could go into a 500-word tangent about it but if you are interested, I encourage you to read my site and check out my sell-supported thoughts on the quarterback.

That said, I do think he definitely needs to improve several aspects of his game, accuracy being one of them. I would also like to see him cut down on his interceptions, though I believe the interception statistic to be greatly exaggerated. Sanchez is most widely criticized for being a poor situational quarterback with bad decision making skills (throwing picks) while also being heralded for his comebacks in high pressure situations. (More on that in a second). I will admit Sanchez has thrown a view bad ones this year, no doubt, but not all of them rest on only the quarterback (and I am sure Giants fans would agree?).

Lastly, I would also like to see him take more shots downfield but again, I have trouble distinguishing between offensive coordinator, game plan and quarterback when I say that. The Jets like to operate under a run-first, short passing style of offense and you can only criticize the quarterback so much for that. He needs to be put in a situation with a coordinator that plays to his strengths, challenges him to take steps forwards and knows how to get the most out of not only the quarterback but also the positions around him (receivers and offensive lineman). Sometimes that requires taking risks and making mistakes but we cannot grow by always playing it safe. Mark completed a 41-yard pass last week, which might seem unbelievable to some people because he is never asked to do it.

I do think Sanchez has surprising athleticism and mobility, something we have only really started to see this season. I would like to see the team incorporate these strengths into the game plan while also challenging to improve in the pocket. We have seen many quarterbacks cause problems for opponents because they able to make plays beyond just being a statue.

Nowadays we also want to judge a quarterback on his ability to orchestrate game winning drives or comeback wins. Sanchez has done that in over 30% of his games in the NFL and has shown he is more than able to get the job done when the pressure is on.

Lastly, I believe Sanchez also has all the intangibles. This is a generally overanalyzed quality but it cannot be discounted.

If I may for just a second make one more point : What people consistently fail to recognize in their assertion that Sanchez has “taken a step back” is that a) stats tell a different story and b) the Jets offensive line has taken a step back c) he had almost an entirely new set of receivers in a shortened off-season and d) Brian Schottenheimer is his offensive coordinator. Not that we should make excuses for everthing, but these are important point to consider.

Next year will be significant for the quarterback and I hope that the addition of offensive consultant Tom Moore will shake things up. But I think the Jets ALSO need to work on improving the offensive line and the play at the skill positions if they want to get the most out of their quarterback.

3. The Jets will always be the little brother in town, just as the Mets, and Islanders have been. Shouldn’t the only thing that matters be putting trophies in the case, and not winning a pre-season trophy or beating the Giants this weekend? (more…)

NFL Predictions Week 5: ESPN says…Giants are KING!

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:30:42 +0000

While the playoff race has begun in the MLB, football season has only just begun. This week we embark on the 2nd quarter of the 2011 NFL season. We’re beginning to see who’s hot and who’s…well…pretty damn awful. Those of you who tune into GmenHQ.com religiously have extra insight into each upcoming week of football before they happen.

Not only do we tap into the prize picking panel at ESPN to see who they favor each week, but the higher ups at Fansided.com have a unique extraction method that involves electrodes, Justin Bieber music and a plumbing snake, which is what brings you, our readers, my weekly predictions right here at GmenHQ.com. So, let’s take a look at how ESPN did last week, how I did and our collective predictions for Week 5. Quickly, I can’t take much more of this!
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Rex Ryan On Plaxico Burress: “We’re smiling from ear to ear”

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:15:07 +0000

Now that Plaxico Burress has had one preseason game under his belt with the Jets – people are waking up to the fact that Burress is indeed a very special WR.

Rex Ryan and March Sanchez can’t say enough good things about Plax after his 3 catches for 66 yards and a TD:

via PFT:

Ryan: “You see we beat Cover-One and we beat Cover-Zero throwing the ball up to him. I don’t care who you are playing corner, you can be Willie Brown or Darrelle Revis out there, that’s going to be tough. We were smiling from ear to ear. That’s why he’s here.”

Sanchez: “I’ve never had a target like him.”

I’m still a little bitter about this because I wanted to see Plax back in Blue, but the Giants made him a ‘responsible offer’ and he went with more guaranteed money. Now, the Jets offense is going to be that much better with Plaxico Burress lining up in the red zone — guaranteed.