Early Friday morning, Mike Florio reported that rehab could help Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez completely avoid surgery on his injured right shoulder.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News has heard something along the same lines. Mehta reports that multiple doctors have told Sanchez that he should not have surgery on the shoulder at this time. It’s not clear if those doctors are also saying that Sanchez can avoid surgery completely, but it does seem that surgery is no longer the inevitability it appeared to be earlier this week.
If doctors are advising Sanchez that he should not have surgery, it clears up the question of why Sanchez would wait to have an operation until after the season if he was going to need it either way. While he feels that he won the quarterback competition before getting hurt, Sanchez’s future is about 99.9 percent sure to be with a team other than the Jets and waiting to have surgery would only make it harder to find that gig.
Sanchez could be ready to play at some point this season, but it remains difficult to see the Jets turning back in his direction for any reason other than injury. There have been some rough moments with Geno Smith through two weeks, but there were rough moments with Sanchez as well and Smith’s a better bet to improve at this point in his career trajectory than the more experienced Sanchez.