NFL

Jets’ Sanchez ready to pass Giants’ Manning in QB battle

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Jets coach Rex Ryan thinks Mark Sanchez is an elite quarterback to behold.

“This guy has won four playoff games in two years — all on the road,” Ryan said yesterday. “I think he’s an elite quarterback because he wins the big games, and he’s a winner.”

This whole elite-quarterback argument, ignited earlier this week by Eli Manning, got me to thinking:

Whom would I rather have quarterbacking my team — Mark Sanchez or Eli Manning?

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Now, neither Manning nor Sanchez belong anywhere near the Tom Brady conversation. And if Sanchez is as on the money with his passes this season as he was answering the question about whether he belongs in Brady’s class, then he very well could leapfrog Manning on his way to the Super Bowl.

“I think that’s for other people to debate,” Sanchez said. “But I know my skill set and I know I’m getting better. Once we win the Super Bowl, then maybe I’ll have an opinion on that. But until then, I’m just trying to win games.”

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The case for Sanchez we’ll call the Joy of 6.

The case for Manning we’ll call the Perfect 10.

The Joy of 6: While Sanchez has slayed both Brady and Peyton Manning in the playoffs on his way to those four road playoff wins, Manning hasn’t won a playoff game since Super Bowl XLII.

The Perfect 10: Manning was Super Bowl MVP. Sanchez has yet to play in one.

The Joy of 6: Sanchez has grown by leaps and bounds as a leader.

“I’m getting more and more comfortable each day. … The game starts to slow down,” Sanchez said. “But you really start to understand the dynamic of a locker room: When it’s time to say something in front of the offense. When you need to grab a couple of guys on defense and [say], ‘Hey, talk to your guys about this,’ or when to pump somebody up. When to stay quiet. When to just put your head down and work and lead by example.”

That’s why he’s Captain Sanchez.

“He’s always in his playbook,” Jets receiver Santonio Holmes said. “He wants to be the field general, and he wants everybody to see, and believe, that he can be that guy for us.”

The Perfect 10: Manning’s mastery of an offense he has engineered since 2004, combined with him showing up every single Sunday and Monday night, and often as Cool Hand Eli, has enabled him to take hold of the leadership mantle.

The Joy of 6: But Sanchez is more gregarious, more of a people person and more of a natural-born leader than Manning. Would Sanchez have put down his playbook and greeted a former teammate who had spent 21 months in jail, even if he might not have been warm to the idea of throwing passes to him again? My guess? Yes.

The Perfect 10: The Giants have grown to trust Manning, maybe too much. Since Plaxico Burress departed, he has had to integrate a corps of talented, but young, receivers. That only partly exonerates him from throwing 25 interceptions a year ago.

The Joy of 6: With a formidable defense and the best special teams coordinator in the business in Mike Westhoff, Sanchez has been asked more often not to lose the game rather than to go win it, except in desperate fourth-quarter crises. The Ground-and-Pound still lives, but the training wheels come off now. He needs to get his 54 percent completion percentage to 60.

The Perfect 10: He’s a fighter whose stoicism and vanilla answers belie his will to win.

The Joy of 6: He’s a fighter whose GQ photo shoot and pretty boy looks belie his will to win.

The Perfect 10: Perhaps Joe Girardi can teach him how to slide.

The Joy of 6: Girardi already has taught Sanchez how to slide.

The Perfect 10: Easy Eli has the perfect temperament for New York. He wanted New York on draft day, remember. He’s the same guy every day.

The Joy of 6: The Sanchise loves the big stage. He wanted New York on draft day. He’s the same guy every day.

The Perfect 10: He’s a daddy now.

The Joy of 6: He doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to find a wife.

The Perfect 10: Manning has never wanted to fight Tom Coughlin.

“Peyton Manning’s won a Super Bowl. He’s won a zillion games and, in my opinion, is the best quarterback in football. And you have Tom Brady, who’s only won three Super Bowls and been the MVP of the league probably three times,” Ryan said. “We’re a ways from there, no doubt. But we win a Super Bowl then, like Eli’s saying, he could be in the conversation.

“I certainly understand where Eli’s coming from. He’s been there and done it, won a Super Bowl. He’s a great quarterback. Now, is he Tom Brady and Peyton? Probably not. But he’s pretty darn good. And I think Mark Sanchez is pretty darn good.”

Elite? No. Neither one of them.

In the meantime, at the start of the 2011 season, Eli gets my nod over Sanchez.

By the end of the 2011 season, I believe it will be Sanchez over Eli.

steve.serby@nypost.com