NFL

Eagles can’t stop raving about Mark Sanchez

PHILADELPHIA — Mark Sanchez traded Jets green for Eagles green, and he sounds reborn because of it.

Sanchez is so giddy about the change of scenery — and so early in his honeymoon as one of Philadelphia’s backup quarterbacks — he actually gave this notoriously unforgiving sports city a compliment Monday.

“The fans are a lot nicer now,” Sanchez said with a grin after a two-hour training camp practice in front of 15,000 of them at Lincoln Financial Field.

Sanchez quickly noted Eagles fans weren’t exactly kind to him when he and the Jets were routed 45-19 on the same field in 2011. So the much-maligned former No. 1 pick by Gang Green knows how quickly it can change as soon as he throws an interception — even in a preseason game.

For now, though, Sanchez sounds both relieved and thrilled to have escaped the sky-high expectations in New York and landed in the welcoming arms of Chip Kelly and Kelly’s madcap offense in Philadelphia.

How excited is Sanchez by the new digs? So excited he described the shoulder injury he suffered last preseason — the one that ultimately greased his exit from the Jets — as a blessing in disguise Monday.

“It was too bad, but those kind of things happen for a reason,” Sanchez said of the injury suffered in the fourth quarter against the Giants. “If that didn’t happen, maybe I wouldn’t be here and learning so much. So there’s a lot of good things that came from it.”

The Eagles seem equally enthused about having Sanchez as one of Nick Foles’ backups, along with Matt Barkley and G.J. Kinne.

“He looks great,” Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmer said. “I’m thrilled he’s here. He’s picked up our offense, he’s making a lot of plays, he’s athletic.

“It’s no mystery watching him here in the last few months why, in his first two years, he was sitting in the locker room at halftime of an AFC Championship Game,” Shurmer added. “He knows how to win games.”

Sanchez certainly looks impressive in the first week of training camp. According to one local media outlet, he has completed 53 of his 64 passes in 11-on-11 drills with one touchdown and no interceptions while leading the second-team offense.

“It feels like fast-break basketball, and you’ve got to play like Steve Nash with the Suns back in the day,” Sanchez said. “Get the ball out of your hands and let the other guys make plays, then move on to the next play.”

Sanchez had earned the scorn of Jets fans by the end of his stay.Charles Wenzelberg

Of course, those numbers are meaningless and will be forgotten as soon as Sanchez gets into a game that actually counts.

Only then will everyone see whether Sanchez is a changed man or still the interception-prone bumbler he was with the Jets, the guy who will never live down the Buttfumble.

Sanchez, though, appears to hold no grudge against his former team. He refuses to criticize the Jets for using him behind a makeshift offensive line in the fourth quarter of a preseason game — leading to the shoulder injury — or for dawdling before releasing him last spring.

Jets general manager John Idzik kept Sanchez under contract while the Raiders and Texans signed starting quarterbacks he considered to be of the same caliber (Matt Schaub and Ryan Fitzpatrick), then finally cut him after the job openings had turned sparse.

Asked about Idzik’s delay, Sanchez took the high road.

“I’m happy I’m here, and things are working out well right now,” he said.

Sanchez is only on a one-year contract, but he definitely appears much happier now.

That’s probably because his surgically repaired shoulder is 100 percent, the expectations of him here are the polar opposite of his previous stop, and Kelly’s offensive scheme is very quarterback-friendly.

Best of all, according to Sanchez, it’s not New York.

“I’ve been through it all,” he said of his stint with the Jets. “I mean, what else is there? I’m not afraid of anything. I’m not apprehensive about anything. I’ve had a ton of experience, so that will only help me.”