Jets coach Rex Ryan wants rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez to be more careful with the ball. And he’s stressing that to Sanchez with a simple instruction before each passing play.
According to Rich Cimini of the New York Daily News, Ryan will give Sanchez a code word before each passing play to let him know how cautious he needs to be.
Described as a simple red-yellow-green system, the color codes will tell Sanchez he needs to be cautious (red) or aggressive (green) or somewhere in between (yellow) on each pass play.
At first blush, this sounds more like the kind of thing you’d get from a Pop Warner coach than an NFL coach. And it comes across as though Ryan doesn’t have a whole lot of faith in Sanchez’s decision making.
But Ryan insists that he has plenty of confidence in Sanchez, saying that the rookie is coming off his best week of practice.
“This is the time that usually the rookies hit that wall, but he’s doing just the opposite,” Ryan said. “He’s breaking through that wall . . . I think he’s going to have a great game.”