There’s two ways to look at this. The first? We won’t have Mark Sanchez to kick around anymore in the NFL. The other? We’ll have a whole new way to kick Sanchez around.
The erstwhile butt-fumbler and name now synonymous with Colin Kaepernick being out of an NFL job has called it a career.
Believe it or not, Sanchez retires with a winning record as a starter, 37-36. He boasted a career completion percentage of 56.6 percent and threw for 15,357 yards and 89 touchdowns with 74 interceptions. As much crap as the dude has taken in his career, that’s not terrible and certainly on par for the better reserve quarterbacks of this era.
But the fact is, Sanchez wasn’t supposed to be a back up. He was supposed to be “The Sanchize.” Drafted to be the next Joe Namath for the New York Jets, Sanchez actually looked the part early. He took his team to two consecutive AFC Championships in 2009 and 2010, his first two years in the league. As a full-time starter, he had only one losing season, a 6-9 campaign with the Jets in 2012 that wrapped up his career there.
BREAKING NEWS: Mark Sanchez retires from NFL for high-profile ESPN job https://t.co/o6wX6tPz76 via @nypostsports
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) July 23, 2019
He wasn’t bad. He wasn’t great, but there have been plenty of quarterbacks that have taken snaps in the league since Sanchez was drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft out of USC that wish they had his talent and record. Also, his bank account as Sanchez pocketed nearly $65.3 million in his 10-year run.
He hangs up his Microsoft Surface tablet to join the ABC and ESPN as a college football analyst. The former No. 5 overall pick played in two games for the Washington Redskins last season and started one, completing 54.3 percent of his passes for 138 yards and three interceptions and that’s pretty much how an NFL tenure ends for a back-up quarterback.
2010 Jets now in media: Rex Ryan, Mike Tannenbaum, Mark Sanchez, LaDainian Tomlinson, Damien Woody, Bart Scott and Mark Brunell. No wonder that Hard Knocks was so good.
— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) July 23, 2019
