Though his surname lends itself to a far more obvious nickname, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is known by some of this teammates and his head coach as simply “Sanchize.”
It’s a twist on “franchise,” as in “franchise quarterback.”
“The Sanchize thing is just funny,” Sanchez said Wednesday, in comments distributed by the team. “Guys in here call me that and Rex [Ryan] calls me that all the time. That’s just the way it is around here. You play quarterback in New York and you get a lot of attention. We’ve deferred a lot of interviews and extra things that I could have been doing and just focused on football. So, it’s funny how you still get all of the attention going the route we have, being ultra conservative. That’s just the kind of stage I’m playing on. I’m fortunate to be part of an organization that helps me out with that everyday. The pressure really isn’t all on me. I have guys that I can throw the ball to, guys that can block and guys that can run. They take all the pressure off and I just play ball.”
He’s right. Actually, Sanchez’s experience with the Jets hasn’t been much different than it was at USC. When surrounded by a bunch of very good athletes, the quarterback doesn’t have to be Johnny Unitas. (As long as he’s not Aaron Corp.)
Frankly, Sanchez hasn’t played like a Pro Bowler, yet. His passer rating is 87.7 (which actually is ten points higher than Eli Manning’s number for his career), but Sanchez has thrown two interceptions and he has fumbled the ball four times.
But he’s 3-0. And that’s the only stat that matters.