NY Jets: Mark Sanchez named team's worst draft pick since 2006

The NY Jets have had some truly awful draft picks over the years. And even when looking at just the last 15 years of the franchise's existence, numerous bad picks come to mind.

But Mark Sanchez might claim the unfortunate title as the worst of the worst.

Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus recently released a list of the worst draft pick made by every NFL team over the last 15 years, or during the PFF era, and Sanchez received the nod for the Jets.

Renner made note of other poor Jets picks that were considered, from Vernon Gholston to Dee Milliner to most recently Sam Darnold. But it was Sanchez who received the "honor."

Is Mark Sanchez the worst NY Jets draft pick of the last 15 years?

Renner made his case for Sanchez while acknowledging that he faces stiff competition.

"There’s a lot of good content to choose from for the Jets here, with Dee Milliner, Sam Darnold and Vernon Gholston all making strong cases. Darnold was obviously the highest-drafted, but they subsequently got a nice little return from the Panthers for him, so it’s hard to say it’s to ding the value too hard. Sanchez, however, took a lot of draft capital to secure via trade and quite easily cost one of the best rosters in the NFL a chance at a Super Bowl."

Michael Renner

He makes a compelling case. While the Gholston and Milliner cases were both disastrous, neither damaged the Jets franchise quite like Sanchez did.

This isn't to say that Sanchez didn't have his moments because he most definitely did. But his time with New York will always be looked back upon as a what-could've-been scenario.

What if the Jets had a more competent quarterback? What if Sanchez panned out as he was supposed to? Would we be talking about the Jets as Super Bowl champions of 2010 or 2011?

It's silly to waste time on hypotheticals. But in terms of return on value and overall damage to the organization, Sanchez likely stands alone.

It's easy to point to Darnold as the team's worst overall pick seeing as he was the highest-drafted, but as Renner states, at least the Jets got a sizable return for him.

Nothing close to the third overall pick they used on him (that's ignoring the trade-up too), but at least they got something out of their investment. The same cannot be said for Sanchez who was ultimately released.

The Jets are hoping that their draft fortunes have turned around under new general manager Joe Douglas.

And they're hoping that Zach Wilson, the organization's latest QB hopeful, won't follow in the footsteps of his predecessors.