The mending of the relationship between Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez and wide receiver Santonio Holmes began a few weeks ago in Orlando, Fla.
Sanchez visited Holmes, who lives there, and the two hashed out the issues between them over dinner.
“When I finally got a chance to see him for a couple of days it was the same old guy from our first year together, that won a bunch of games for us in the closing seconds of games,” Sanchez said. “I know it can work between us. It’s not a question of if. It’s a matter of when, and that’s now. I’m thrilled about that.”
Sanchez met with reporters who regularly cover the team before being honored at the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation Gala in Manhattan last night. He touched on a variety of topics, including the Jets’ struggles in 2011, the departure of offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and anonymous teammates criticizing him this winter.
Sanchez, who called the anonymous sniping “gutless” earlier yesterday on ESPN 1050’s “The Michael Kay Show,” said last night he did not pay much mind to players who were quoted anonymously.
“If you’re not going to put your name on something, why waste anybody’s time? That’s fine,” he said. “They obviously had strong opinions about it, not strong enough to say who they were. That was it.”
But the main topic Sanchez discussed was Holmes, who sulked his way through the end of the season and showed up the quarterback in the final week by acting up during and then skipping study-sessions organized by Sanchez.
Sanchez, who received a three-year contract extension last week, would not go into too much depth about his meeting with Holmes, but said they have been talking all winter and everything is fine now.
“We’ve talked about it,” Sanchez said. “We both had strong feelings about it. We got a chance to sit there and address a lot of issues. It was good.”
Sanchez took his share of the blame for the problems.
“I don’t want to speak for Santonio, but I know I underachieved,” he said. “I think there were some things I could have handled better.”
Sanchez said he did not think responding to every criticism would be worthwhile.
“It doesn’t matter unless you go win games,” he said. “That’s the ultimate goal, and that’s the ultimate defense.”
Sanchez turned the ball over 26 times last year. He said improving on that will be an area of focus for him. He said he thinks some of the offense’s problems in the 8-8 finish were because the Jets strayed from their usual Ground and Pound at the start of the season.
“We didn’t have an identity like we wanted, like we had the first two years, where we were a great downhill running team,” he said. “We had a quarterback that could move. We could get out on the edge when we needed to and we could take shots down the field. … It just felt like we lost some of our identity. We were so enamored with a bunch of new players and it was like ‘OK, let’s figure out how to use all these guys.’ That can happen. That can totally happen to a team.”
Schottenheimer was shown the door in January and Sanchez will have former Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano as his new offensive coordinator. Sanchez called it a “personnel decision” but spoke fondly of his time with Schottenheimer.
“I don’t think it was a matter of him being a scapegoat or not,” he said. “That wasn’t the only reason we lost games. Was everybody responsible? Yeah. Did I turn the ball over too many times? Absolutely. Did he make every perfect play call? Of course not, nobody does. Whether you win the Super Bowl or not, it’s just not realistic. But I don’t think it’s his fault.”