Time for the New York Jets to Drop the Charade Regarding Mark Sanchez

Aug 29, 2013; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez during the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John O

John Idzik and the New York Jets’ are trying very hard to control the amount of information coming out to the media. This is the team’s right, and in many ways is smart. The flow of information prior to Idzik’s arrival was something akin to the free flow of morning bowel movements. It was too much.

For the most part, the change has worked. Moves have not been confirmed until the team has released them. We are not certain of the roster until the team announces it. As we know, this is a major change from the Tannenbaum era.

But, as far as the quarterback situation is going, enough is enough. It’s time to drop this charade. We know that Mark Sanchez is not healthy enough to play on Sunday, just announce it already, name Geno Smith your starter, and move on. To be this secretive is just silly.

We all know the answer anyway.

It’s time to stop deflecting the question, as Rex Ryan did yesterday when asked if the acquisition of Brady Quinn means that Mark isn’t going to be ready for Sunday:

You can look at a lot of different things. (You) try to build the best team you can have. We might be heavy in some positions, (but) we’re obviously light in other positions. Just looking at them from a numbers standpoint, I can understand where you’re coming from, but when you look at them, you just try to get the best 53 that you can find that’s out there to help your team. That’s what we’re trying to do. When you look at our situation, I think we only had three outside linebackers. There are some spots we’re extremely heavy at and there are others where I think we’re a little light by traditional NFL numbers. Again, we’re focused on trying to put the best group that we can out there and fielding the best team we can. Could that change? Absolutely, it can change. But that’s really how we’re approaching this football team.

Just answer the questions, rather than reading from the media bridges the team was given out, ie “I can understand where you’re coming from…”. It just creates undue medial attention. Besides, all the team is doing is window dressing. They know what is going on.

First of all, Mark Sanchez has not practiced since he sustained the injury against the New York Giants. The team has not had him throw since. Rex can talk as much as he wants about how Sanchez has been in the classroom, and taken part in walk-throughs. Nothing is a substitute for being on the field. If Mark Sanchez is not on the field implementing the game plan for Sunday, he will not be on the field Sunday. Period. Unless your name is Brady, Manning, Rodgers, or a few others, you must practice in order to play.

Secondly, not only are the Jets dead set on carrying four quarterbacks, they are almost desperate to. They are so sure they need four QBs, they ran out and signed Brady Quinn yesterday. Brady Quinn. He has shown flashes, but has never been good for a stretch of time. Despite the fact that they won’t answer the questions, if Mark Sanchez was truly “day-to-day”, the Jets would not have run so fast to claim one of the last few QBs available.

They would have continued to look, and had Mark Sanchez listed on depth chart as 3rd string for Sunday. They haven’t done that. They ran out to bring in Brady Quinn, but aren’t willing to admit (yet) that Mark is hurt.

Stevie Wonder knows it. What are the Jets trying to prove?

It’s not a huge competitive advantage to keep the QB secret. Maybe it would be a decent secret if it wasn’t so obvious. But everyone knows he isn’t playing. The Bucs are likely preparing not to face Sanchez anyway, just tell the fans that Geno Smith is the starter.

Secrecy and limiting the media’s knowledge is one thing. If you insult fans’ intelligence, it will grow old really fast. Especially with New York Jets’ fans.