For those of you who have been willing to pay out of your own pocket to put Mark Sanchez on the first Amtrak out of Penn Station headed for parts unknown (you know who you are), relax and check the facts.
For those of you who believe Sanchez has been an unmitigated flop as a franchise quarterback (you know who you are), take a close look at his quarterback contemporaries around the NFL and ask yourself if you’d rather have them taking snaps for the Jets.
Take a look in Detroit, where Matthew Stafford, who like Sanchez was drafted in 2009, has led the Lions to records of 2-14, 6-10, 10-6 in his first three years and 2-4 this year.
Take a look in Tampa Bay, where Josh Freeman, who was also drafted in 2009, has led the Buccaneers to records of 3-13, 10-6, 4-12 and their current 2-4.
Take a look in St. Louis, where Sam Bradford, who was drafted a year after Sanchez, has taken the Rams, who went 7-9 and 2-14 in his first two seasons and are 3-4 this year.
Entering Sunday’s game against the Dolphins at MetLife Stadium, Sanchez has a 30-24 career record and is 4-2 in the playoffs — all four wins coming on the road. He has missed one game in his career because of injury.
Stafford is 15-20, 0-1 in the playoffs and missed 19 games because of injury his first two seasons. Bradford is 11-22 and Freeman is 19-27 and either has been to the playoffs.
“You’re never hearing about anyone trying to run them out of town,’’ Jets tight end Dustin Keller said yesterday.
Sanchez is one of just five NFL quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era to win 30 games in his first three seasons, including playoffs. Sure, he had some good defenses and a strong running game, but he wasn’t doing it with a roster of All-Pros.
Receiver Chaz Schilens, who is in his first year with the Jets after playing four years in Oakland, said he was blown away by the negative perception of Sanchez when he came here.
“It’s like people purposely want to see him fail,’’ Schilens told The Post. “I’ve never seen anything like it. If he was in another city, the fans would love him. I’ve played with good quarterbacks and I’ve played with bad quarterbacks and Mark is in the upper tier.
“A lot of the criticism he receives is not fair, but I guess it comes with playing in this city.’’
Sanchez should be lauded for the things he doesn’t say when he probably has a lot he would like to say.
If, for example, rookie receiver Stephen Hill catches that third-down pass late in the fourth quarter in New England, the first down would have allowed the Jets to bleed the clock down to mere seconds before kicking the go-ahead field goal instead of the eternity they left Tom Brady to tie the game and send it to overtime.
After the game, and even yesterday, Sanchez praised Hill for playing well. For contrast, look at the immature way Cam Newton has behaved in Carolina while this Panthers season has unraveled. How much respect do you think his petulance has earned him inside his own locker room?
“You can’t say enough about how he’s handled himself and the scrutiny that comes with it,’’ right guard Brandon Moore said.
It’s how Sanchez has handled the scrutiny and criticism that has earned him the respect he has inside the locker room.
“I keep it in perspective,’’ Sanchez told The Post. “My teammates know where my heart is at with this thing and how much I care about it. I want to make sure those guys understand that, at the end of the day, man, I’ll take the bullets.
“It’s easy to be the quarterback when you’re in middle of a playoff run and things are going great. How do you measure someone when things aren’t going well, and everyone’s opinion is, ‘This guy is terrible?’ I take the attitude, ‘Well, all right, we’ll see what we do on Sunday.’ ’’
At 1 p.m. Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Sanchez gets another chance to turn the ever-changing perception of him to positive — if just for five minutes.