Rex Ryan silent on Mark Sanchez extension

With the New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum announcing that they have signed quarterback Mark Sanchez to a three-year, $40.5 million extension, there is one person who has been eerily silent on the situation: head coach Rex Ryan.

Ryan was extremely critical of his starting quarterback last season and would surely have loved to make an upgrade at the position or at least bring in some decent competition but now he will be forced to double-down on Sanchez’s bad decision-making, poor play, and fragile psyche.

Sanchez has made very little improvement his three years in the league. Sure he gets a lot of credit  (too much credit) for leading this team to back-to-back AFC Championship games but his career numbers have been pretty lackluster so far.

His touchdowns have increased every year but that is the only statistic where he has shown improvement. He threw 18 interceptions last year which was only two shy of the 20 he threw his rookie season.

In three years as starter Sanchez has yet to complete 60% of his passes for a season. His 3,474 total yards passing was a career high but he had his lowest average in yards-per-attempt and lost a career high 8 fumbles to boot.

What will hurt the organization more than Sanchez’s poor play is how the money they gave him will hurt them in their free-agent hunt. The Jets need major upgrades at a lot of positions so giving Sanchez all that money when he still had two years left on his original contract doesn’t make sense.

And if they were going to do it anyway then they could have at least waited until after the draft. That way they would have had a better grasp of the team’s roster situation before signing him. I mean it’s not like he was going anywhere.

But much to the chagrin of loyal Jets’ fans they are saddled with five more years of the “San-chise.” When the time does come for Ryan to speak on the signing you know he will toe the company line and endorse the Sanchez signing as a great move for the organization. Typical coach-speak of course.

Hopefully for Ryan and Jets’ fans everywhere new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano can get Sanchez to play better and make Tannenbaum look smarter than he looks now. Wishful thinking I know but at this point is there any other option?

How do you feel about the Sanchez extension? We'd love to hear your comments.
 

Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and is also an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist and add him on Facebook Roosevelt Hall Thesportmentalist.

 

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