If Mark Sanchez gets his way, he’ll return to the Jets in 2014.
“It’s been a dream come true to play here, and I don’t want to go anywhere else,” Sanchez said Tuesday. “I know I have two years left [on his contract — it’s actually three], and I don’t ever want that to end. I love being a Jet, and I plan on being here.”
Sanchez spoke to reporters for the first time since undergoing season-ending surgery on a torn labrum in his right shoulder last month. Sanchez donated and was serving lunch at the Community Soup Kitchen in Morristown, N.J.
Sanchez’s salary cap number for 2014 is $13.1 million, making it seem likely the team will cut him in the offseason for a cap savings of $8.3 million. But Sanchez said he expects to be back next season.
“Absolutely,” Sanchez said. “I know I’ve heard a lot of stuff on the outside about me not being here, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case in the building. So hopefully not. Hopefully I’m a Jet. That’s what I am, that’s what I want to be.”
The 27-year-old said he has had no conversations with Jets management about his future because it’s too soon, but he wants to return.
“That’s all I’m thinking about, is coming back next year and leading this team, playing well,” Sanchez said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Sanchez said his rehabilitation from the injury is going well and he expects to return to full strength. He would not provide any timeline for when he could resume throwing again, but said the recovery process from this surgery generally is 4-6 months. Sanchez said he is not rushing anything because he can’t return this season.
“The way things are coming along it sounds like I’ll be bionic,” Sanchez said.
He has split his time among New Jersey, his home in California and locations near the offices of Dr. James Andrews in Alabama and Florida. Sanchez said it has been a strange feeling being away from football.
“It’s different, and something I don’t wish on anybody, not even on your worst enemy,” he said. “It’s hard to be away. It’s hard to not be in the locker room, be on the plane, be on the bus, little things like that you just miss it so much.”
The Jets placed linebacker Troy Davis on season-ending injured reserve with a chest injury.