As the Jets continue to sink lower and lower into obscurity, the one constant that remains is Rex Ryan’s show of faith towards starting Quarterback Mark Sanchez.
There’s been an up and down swing in the ‘interesting’ relationship dynamic between Coach Ryan and Sanchez. Whispers from the media always alluded to some impending drama between the two, with questions about a benching that for Sanchez never seems to come. In the off season rumors ran rampant with just how much Tebow would participate during the season. It was widely speculated that the second the Jets season runs off course Tebow would be substituted immediately–it hasn’t happened.
Now here we are today, the Jets have an abysmal 3-6 record, and Rex Ryan has come out in earnest to stand by Sanchez. Ryan went so far as to say
Mark’s our starting Quarterback, I believe in our offense. I know it hasn’t looked great, hasn’t put up the numbers I’d like. If you’re making positive steps, you have to believe
I’m not even all that sure as to what the latter part of that means–Ryan’s totally delusional, but that’s besides the fact. Why after the Jets make this huge splash in landing Tebow do they refuse to use him? It seems almost unnatural for a team, like the Jets, that’s so overly concerned with stirring a buzz and selling tickets, to not use the NFL’s most controversial player. Have the Jets finally put a premium on winning, and realized that despite Sanchez’s prolonged slump at the end of the day he’s the better Quartback? No.
Ok, to be fair, the Jets do care about winning–duh, despite the fact that they don’t always act as if that’s their ultimate goal. The fact of the matter remains that the Jets have a very tangible bond with Sanchez, they’ve invested in him financially and even moved up in the draft just to get him. The media’s perception of Sanchez as some ‘orphan’ that just showed up on the Jets’ proverbial door is just silly. Not to mention the fact that the Jets’ losing ways is not rooted in their Quarterback situation, the Jets offense is just virtually nonexistent.
The Jets have no established running game, their only potent (and I use that word loosely) receiver is out for the year in Santonio Holmes, their best player in general–Darelle Revis is also gone. The Jets would be floundering even if they had Drew Brees under center, so to make this a Sanchez vs Tebow thing is not examining the whole picture. But, with that said, we know the Jets all too well to know that they have something up their sleeve, ultimately. The Jets have empty seats, a lot in fact and no matter how much Rex Ryan gets on stage in press conferences professing his undying love for Sanchez, if the Jets continue to hit the skids as far as ticket sales a change will be made.
The Tebow card is the only one in the deck for the struggling Jets. With six weeks left in the regular season they can’t afford to pull it out too fast and then be left with nothing down the stretch if the Tebow experiment goes terribly wrong. Patience is the Jets only virtue when it comes to Tebow, and they have to toe the line with saving face with Sanchez. To bench Sanchez would be like the Jets admitting that they were wrong about him, and they’d rather go completely winless than ever admit that they may have been wrong about something. This isn’t about sparing Sanchez’s feelings…I mean come on now…this is the Jets. This is about waiting out the storm and then sending out the ‘golden boy’ to try to save the day, or in the Jets case…ticket value.