By JUSTIN PORRECA
Staff Writer
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October’s flavor of the month was the Dallas Cowboys. But now that flavor has grown stale, and the NFL has a new flavor for its fans. That flavor is “the Sanchize.”
Mark Sanchez has become the talk of the town in Philadelphia and nearly every city in America. Analysts, insiders, and fans alike have started to hitch their bandwagons to the former New York Jets starter. As many fans know, Sanchez got his second chance as a starting quarterback in the NFL, because Nick Foles going down on the last play of the first quarter versus the Houston Texans in Week Nine with a broken clavicle.
Since Sanchez climbed into the driver’s seat of Chip Kelly’s high octane offense, he’s played particularly well. He has 534 passing yards, four touchdowns to two interceptions, a 59.3 completion percentage, and he is (2-0) under center for the high-flying Eagles. With this early success, can Sanchez sustain it, and possibly become the ultimate tease in NFL history?
A tease, according to NFL terminology, is a player who shows brief glimpses of promise and tantalizes fans into believing that their team had finally found their franchise quarterback. However, these same players underwhelm and break the hearts of all the fans that believed in them within a very brief period of time. A player who will forever wear the badge of shame for being one of the biggest teases in NFL history is former Lions’ starting quarterback Scott Mitchell.
Mitchell got his big break in 1993, filling in for an injured Dan Marino, who tore his Achilles tendon in a week five match-up versus the Cleveland Browns. Mitchell was playing so well as a replacement that Miami fans were pushing for Mitchell to become the Dolphin’s permanent starter and for the organization to part ways with their franchise quarterback and face of the organization. That’s not a joke. Miami fans did want to replace a Hall of Famer with an unproven quarterback.
Miami ended up sticking with Marino, and letting Mitchell dive into the free-agency pool, where he would strike a big money deal with the Detroit Lions. The Lions gave Mitchell $11 million over three years, a big contract back in 1993.
In the 1995 season, Mitchell lived up to the contract. He threw for 4,338 yards, had 32 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, a 59.3 completion percentage, and led the Lions to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth. However, a playoff match-up with the Philadelphia Eagles started his slow demise. The Lions were blown out by the Eagles and Mitchell threw four interceptions.
After his one-hit wonder season that enticed Lions fans into thinking that they had the key that could bring them to the promised land, everything came crashing down. In his final three seasons in Detroit after his memorable 1995 season, Mitchell threw for 6,853 yards, and 37 touchdowns to 34 interceptions. During that span, he signed a four-year, $21 million contract. After signing that contract in 1997, Mitchell was benched after two games in 1998. Then, Detroit dumped Mitchell and his big contract off to the Baltimore Ravens where he continued to struggle mightily.
Mitchell lifted the spirits of Lions fans everywhere in 1995, and then ultimately crushed them. He will forever be the ultimate tease- that is, unless Sanchez says otherwise.
Now to divert the attention back onto Mr. Sanchez, who has the opportunity to overthrow Mitchell for the title of “Biggest Tease in NFL History.” The former fifth pick in the 2009 NFL Draft has not lived up to his billing as a top-five pick.
Sanchez, who started his career off hot by leading the Jets to two conference championship games, cooled off rapidly. Through 64 career games, Sanchez has 12,626 passing yards, 72 touchdowns to 71 interceptions, a 55.2 completion percentage, a 34-29 record, and is best remembered for the infamous “butt fumble.” However, all that can temporarily disappear, if Sanchez can go out and perform on a semi-elite level for the Philadelphia Eagles.
This offseason, Sanchez signed a one-year, $2.25 contract with the Eagles, making him a free agent in 2015. If Sanchez plays out of his mind the rest of the season and hits the open-market like Mitchell did before him, he is in store for a big pay-day. The team that would pay for his services would be the St. Louis Rams. With Sam Bradford, the first pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, likely on his way out this offseason or next due to durability issues and lack of production in his five seasons with the Rams, this would be a perfect setting for Sanchez.
Sanchez would play under a proven and stable head coach in Jeff Fisher, and he would be reunited with his former offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, whom he had the most success with. Sanchez would get a contract upwards of $25 million and four years. Sanchez would also be surrounded by young weapons, like tight end Jared Cook and receivers Tavon Austin, Brian Quick, Kenny Britt, Chris Givens, and Stedman Bailey. A great half-season with the Eagles would give Rams fans the ultimate hope at quarterback, a position they have been struggling to fill since Marc Bulger. An above-average quarterback paired with a very talented defense would entice Rams fans. There would be playoff hopes swirling around St. Louis, but Sanchez, like Mitchell, may just tease Rams fans to death and crush their playoff hopes and dreams.
Before this hypothesis of Sanchez’s future, the present has to be analyzed. Sanchez has a mighty difficult match-up versus the hot Green Bay Packers this Sunday, but if he comes out of Lambeau with a win and a good performance, the hype will slowly start to gather some momentum. After the Packers, Sanchez has five games against mediocre to below-average defenses (Tennessee Titans, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, and the New York Giants). These match-ups could boost the hype meter of Sanchez to levels many thought were inevitable.
Ultimately, Sanchez’s future lies within his own hands. He can climb to great heights and earn some of the respect he lost after the butt-fumble. Or, he can crumble and show the world that he is still the same Mark Sanchez that he was with the New York Jets, a turnover machine. The world is his oyster, and only he can dictate where his career goes from Week Eleven.
