are you ready to admit you were wrong about Sanchez yet? Wasn't it you who was beating his chest that Sanchez was a top 10 QB and a winner and that everyone was going to look like idiots when the Jets ripped off wins the rest of the way because their schedule was so easy... oh yeah... what happened there? Sanchez looked like absolute crap and the Jets had one of the great end of season meltdowns in a long time.
i look forward to your spinning, angry, likely personal attack-tinged response to the above.
Isn't this the kind of ad hominem baiting that you generally object to when it comes from other posters? Weird.
Anyway, I think in my QB power rankings around mid-season, I had Sanchez at like 12 or 13. I think that's probably where I'd still have him now--a little above average. If suggesting that a guy who'd been to consecutive AFC Championship games might be in the lower echelon of top QBs is "beating my chest", the I guess that's what I was doing. Although that's a pretty low bar to clear.
As for the Jets season? They were pretty much a .500 team all the way through. Ended up at 8-5 after going on a three-game win streak against three of the worst teams in the NFL (BUF, @WAS, KC), then struggled in three tough games (@PHI, NYG--currently leading 15-1 Green Bay, and @MIA). The Jets needed help to make the playoffs at the end of the year, and don't think they would've been in even if they'd one against Miami. If that's an epic collapse on par with the 2009 Mets, then, again, that's a pretty low bar to clear.
As for Sanchez himself, he set career highs for completion percentage, yardage, TDs, and passer rating, despite having a running game in decline and a garbage offensive line (seriously, expect that fans here are going to be begging for D'Brickashaw Ferguson once he gets released for salary purposes this offseason--despite the fact that he's basically Levi Brown already). He's not good enough to put that offense on his shoulders yet, but I didn't really expect him to be.
After Brady, Brees, Rodgers, Roethlisberger, Manning, Romo, Cutler, Rivers, Vick, Stafford, and Newton, I think you're in the Sanchez conversation. I'd probably rather have Alex Smith than Sanchez, but maybe CBus would disagree. I'd rather have Sanchez than Kolb, Skelton, Bradford, T. Jackson, C. Ponder, B. Gabbert, D. Orlovsky, Carson Palmer, Tim Tebow, Matt Cassell, and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
So Sanchez resides somewhere in the creamy middle of NFL quarterbacks. If you're really going to get after me about something, you should be all over me about falling in love with Josh Freeman. What happened to that guy this season?
Finally, I'd add that arguing about whether Mark Sanchez is the 11th or 20th best quarterback in the NFL is a little different than arguing whether or not the quarterback that just lead his team to a 14-2 record and outdueled Drew Brees is "useless" and "garbage."
