Be careful what you wish for

There is a certain mindset about the Jets’ quarterback situation, in the big sector of the Jets’ Nation, that is a little bit of a head-scratcher to me. Let’s take a look . . .

What I’m hearing from a lot of Jets fans is they want Geno Smith to start because they want ANYBODY BY SANCHEZ.

That makes very little sense.

The disdain these fans have for Sanchez, won’t make Smith ready to play sooner. It doesn’t work that way. He’s a second round quarterback who is a major project, and I mean major.

I’m not saying he can’t be good in time, but he’s going to need time.

Smith holds the ball too long, often doesn’t step up in the pocket like he should, and takes a lot of sacks. He played out of the shut-gun in college, so his footwork is off. Shut-gun footwork is so different than the type of footwork quarterbacks use under center. He also has a very thin build, and needs to get bigger and stronger in an NFL strength program, or he could get hurt.

It’s foolish to hand the keys of the car to him immediately, no matter how much a faction of fans dislike Sanchez.

The fans have a right to be down on Sanchez, he’s coming off a couple of rough seasons.

He’s been compared to the horror film character “Jason” from “Friday the 13^th” by Adam Schein who works for two Jets media partners – NFL.com and SNY. That character was a serial killer.

So that doesn’t help his image, either.

Neither does what I feel was questionable story that claimed 80-90 percent of this his teammates don’t want him to start.

So it’s not easy being Sanchez this off-season.

But he’s better than Geno Smith RIGHT NOW. There is no question about it. Perhaps Geno has more of an upside, but he’s not ready to play.

I don’t want to get personal about Sanchez. I’m not going to call him names, or quote supposed unnamed teammates bashing him.

Let’s just stick to football.

Mark has a lot of work to do to turn his game around.

One of the most underrated contributors to NFL.com and NFL Network is a former player and scout named Daniel Jeremiah. He had an interesting tweet about Sanchez today.

“Studied Sanchez tape – a lot of issues. Poor anticipation is the major problem. He’s consistently late. No trust, locking on,” tweeted Jeremiah this morning.

Very well put.

Mark seemed to lose trust in his eyes last year – he often didn’t trust what he was seeing. He seemed rattled when under duress and this led to forced throws. His decision-maker was shaky. He locked into his primary reads too often. Sanchez needs work on going through his progressions better, especially in the Jets’ new West Coast Offense.

Mark has a lot of work to do to improve, and one thing he’s not afraid of is hard work. He has two good teachers in house in offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and quarterback coach David Lee.

Let’s see if he can improve.

It’s going to be tough.

I can assure you of something right now – he’s much better than Geno Smith at this stage of the game.

Now I think Greg McElroy is a viable option for the starting job, but I’m not going to become an advocate journalist. If they don’t think that he’s on the level of Sanchez and Smith, so be it.

But all you people who want Smith to start immediately, be careful what you wish for.

May 28, 2013

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