Philadelphia Eagles fans hopeful of never having to see quarterback Mark Sanchez take another starting snap for their beloved franchise will get a kick out of this - Darrelle Revis, Sanchez's former teammate when the two were with the then Rex Ryan-led New York Jets, said recently during an interview with Sports Illustrated that the New York team that reached the AFC Championship game two years running, in both 2009 and 2010, did so not because Sanchez was playing at a high level and steering the ship on an accurate course, but in spite of Sanchez's mediocre and, to hear Revis tell it, nearly non-existent efforts.
"We almost made it, and we didn't have a quarterback," Revis said, per SI, before adding that, "Mark was solid. He wasn't elite."
It would certainly be hard to argue with Revis on the point that Sanchez wasn't elite. Despite having been selected No. 5-overall in the 2009 NFL draft by Ryan and the Jets, Sanchez struggled with accuracy, turnovers and overall consistency from Day One in the NFL. His elite play at USC simply did not translate to the professional game and while he did help lead the Jets to 9-7 and 11-5 finishes his first two years in the league, he did so as more of a game-manager and less as what you could even remotely consider an elite signal-caller.
Consider: Ryan's vaunted defenses finished first in the league in the 2009 regular season and third in 2010. In the 2009 postseason, New York's defensive unit gave up an average of just 19.3 points per game and allowed just 20.3 the next year. Sanchez, on the other hand, helmed a Jets offense that finished 20th in the league in 2009 and 11th in 2010. While the overall numbers aren't great, Sanchez himself didn't actually perform that badly - at least not as badly as Revis' comments would indicate.
During the team's two postseason runs, Sanchez completed over 60 percent of his passes, managed four touchdowns and two interceptions in 2009 and five touchdowns, one interception and one fumble in 2010. Both postseasons his rating was over 92.0.
In short, Sanchez is not elite, there's no question about that, but he may not be as bad as Revis or Jets or Eagles fans would like to suggest. He's a good player and can be a solid spot starter, assuming the team around him is strong. He was recently ranked the best back-up in the league by Marc Sessler of NFL.com for a reason.
Will he win you games in the postseason on his own? No. Will he raise the play of the guys around him? No.
Can he manage you to the conference championship game? Yes.
Is that enough in an NFL predicated on high-flying, high-scoring passing offenses? That's for Chip Kelly to decide in training camp.
