Mark Sanchez knew this day was coming even as he wished in a strange sort of way that it wouldn't.
There was no shock when the Jets officially released him on Friday, no disbelief when the organization ended a strange five-year relationship with their erstwhile Golden Boy. The team signed veteran Michael Vick to replace him.
The Jets moved on many months ago, filed Sanchez neatly away into the past as they crossed their fingers that the new kid taking his place will be the real deal. Sanchez had his shot. They had no use for him anymore.
'We were rookies together and had some early success,' Rex Ryan said in a statement. 'We experienced a lot together and I really appreciate Mark.'
There was an inevitability about this divorce, but Sanchez still wanted to make it work and orchestrate a comeback with the Jets, according to people close to him. In his heart, he beat out Geno Smith in the Jets quarterback competition last summer, beat him fair and square, only to suffer a season-ending shoulder injury in the fourth quarter of the meaningless fourth preseason game.
Sanchez's career with the Jets ended that August night at MetLife Stadium even if none of us knew it at the time. He writhed in pain, clutching his shoulder, screaming into the night, cursing circumstance. He blamed Ryan and general manager John Idzik, blamed the whole damn organization for never shooting him straight during a sham of a competition.
His future with the team was effectively sealed when he was placed on Injured Reserve in September, a sad finish to a career that began with so much promise. Sanchez went 36-31 as a starter with 89 total touchdowns and 72 interceptions with the Jets. The team freed up $8.3 million on the salary cap by cutting Sanchez, who was scheduled to have a $13.1 million cap charge this season. He was due a $2 million roster bonus on March 25.
The options for the 27-year-old Sanchez, who is looking to compete for a starting job, has shrunk since the Jets decided to hold on him throughout the first two weeks of free agency.
Sanchez was supposed to be the star quarterback that Woody Johnson craved, the good-looking superstar at the sport's most important position. Johnson had always gravitated the idea of a larger-than-life figure quarterbacking his team. Brett Favre's brief stay had ended in disgrace with a sexting scandal.
Now, Johnson saw another chance in Sanchez, the glitzy quarterback with matinee idol looks and a skillset to match. He was the sketch of Southern California. He was goofy and quirky, but football smart. He had Johnson, Rex Ryan and former general manager Mike Tannenbaum at hello.
The Jets' draft-day trade to take Sanchez with the No. 5 pick signaled a new day for the franchise. The Sanchise was their prophet. He would lead them to the Promised Land like the guy in the fur coat.
Sanchez may have been a passenger for the Jets' back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances in his first two seasons, but he elevated his play in the biggest games in 2009 and 2010. He had a 3-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the postseason. He beat Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in consecutive weeks. He won four road playoff games in his first two years, giving hope to a future without a ceiling.
Sanchez was supposed to have his breakout in 2011, but his maddening inconsistency (31 total TDs, but 26 turnovers) and a season-ending three-game implosion that kept the Jets out of the playoffs drew criticism inside the team's walls. He was a polarizing figure. Was he a franchise quarterback or the beneficiary of a strong supporting cast?
The team's decision makers looked into the possibility of acquiring blockbuster free-agent Peyton Manning that offseason before a swift rejection from the future of Hall of Famer pulled them back to Sanchez.
Tannenbaum gambled by giving Sanchez a three-year contract extension, a curious move that ultimately contributed to the GM's ouster less than a year later. The Jets made another miscalculation a couple weeks later by trading for lightning-rod quarterback Tim Tebow.
Tebow's presence coupled with an eroding skill-position supporting cast had a disastrous effect on Sanchez, who looked lost for much of a turnover-riddled 2012 season that got him benched for the first time in his career.
Idzik's arrival after the 2012 season was the beginning of the end for Sanchez. The new GM took Geno Smith in the second round of his first draft with the hope that he'd supplant Sanchez during a quarterback competition that changed the rules to accommodate Smith during training camp.
Sanchez, working with his third offensive coordinator in as many years, picked up Marty Mornhinweg's West Coast offense. He was hardly perfect in the preseason, but clearly outplayed Smith by any objective measure.
Despite mounting criticism from a fan base that couldn't see past the league-high 52 turnovers in the previous two seasons, Sanchez stayed above the fray. When a classless contingent of fans booed him after an interception during an intrasquad training camp scrimmage, he shrugged it off, believing that he could turn all that angst into approval once more with one big play.
He carried that mindset 3,000 miles away to his home just outside Los Angeles as he rehabbed his surgically repaired shoulder. He carried that mindset when the owner that once embraced him told the world that maybe the player should have better protected himself on the play that cost him his season.
He didn't stop thinking of himself as the quarterback of the New York Jets even as the head coach who had an image of his wife wearing a No. 6 Jets jersey emblazoned on his arm, the guy who once said that 'The Kid' would be his starting quarterback for as long as he was in charge, had moved on.
Sanchez still wanted to author a comeback.
The Jets predictably never gave him that chance.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, March 21, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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