Rex Ryan: I never thought Mark Sanchez would be a franchise quarterback

[gmf1369]

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Former Jets head coach and current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan spoke with Rich Cimini about Jets quarterbacks of the past and present. He made a rather curious claim about the first starting quarterback of his Jets tenure.

"With Sanchez, I knew he wasn't going to be a franchise quarterback, but I thought he'd be good enough to win with," Ryan said. "The guys coming out in this year's class have a much higher rating than Mark had -- and Mark was OK."​

Of course, Ryan and Sanchez had a very successful start to their era of Jets football, coming within a game of the Super Bowl in both of their first two seasons together.

Any search of Ryan’s comments during Sanchez’s Jets tenure, during both the successful and unsuccessful stretches, display the coach stating the exact opposite.

Take this story from right after Sanchez was drafted.

Coach Rex Ryan said the team was impressed by Sanchez's footwork and confidence and that offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer "put him through every workout known to man and he passed every one of them with flying colors. We knew, I think, right then that this was the guy we really wanted."​

The Jets traded into the top five for the quarterback. That typically does not happen unless all of the key figures within an organization sign off. It certainly is not a move a team typically makes if the head coach has substantial concerns about the player not projecting as a franchise quarterback.

Rex Ryan’s tenure with the Jets had some very real highs and some disappointing lows. It just feels in this instance like he is trying to rewrite history with these comments to distance himself from a major decision that backfired.

 

[butterscotch]

I thought he would be good but not great

 

[The Wicker Man]

I wanted to stay put and draft Josh Freeman. :global (11):

 

[Mainejet]

Rex never lied about a thing. He did what was right in those situations.

 

[magicjohnson]

I will always remember the defining moment when Rex finally realized it. Mark gets benched as McElroy leads the team to victory. One of Rex Ryans best offensive decisions...which was probably the only offensive decision he ever made. :global (27):

 

[TebowCan'tThrow]

Yet he got a tattoo of his wife in "Sanchize's" jersey.

 

[Old#15]

Yet he got a tattoo of his wife in "Sanchize's" jersey.

Maybe he was very good at something else.

 

[Estuaryman]

Rex trying to distance himself from a decision that backfired? If we had to go through every decision like that in Jets history, I would still be writing this next week.

Hindsight is always easy. Maybe trading up for a kid who declared for the draft early after so few starts for USC wasn't a good idea.

We protected Sanchez a lot early on with our ground and pound philosophy. We had Shonn Greene and LT in the backfield, making sure he didn't have to pass all the time.

At some point, you have to let a young quarterback develop his passing game, grow and progress, and it never really happened with Mark Sanchez.

 

[jetgreen13]

this was in bad taste by ryan, who i'm a fan of..

now if/when sanchez is asked about this & he says something like "i always knew ryan was not a long term HC but even i didn't think he would be an analyst this soon.."

would sanchez be the bad guy?? i say no..

 

[Bigmoe]

I liked Rex as our head coach , Feet and all
He's terrible on TV
He went on to make excuses for Geno

“I don’t think we helped Geno by any stretch of the imagination,” Ryan said. “We never added anything that could help him. And he didn’t help himself, either. It was that combination.”

 

[soj]

Isn'y this the guy who stated, "he is my guy." When they were looking at him initially... what a buffoon...