In Mark Sanchez’s mind, he expects to be the starting quarterback on Sept. 8 at MetLife Stadium when the Jets open the season against the Buccaneers.
“No doubt,” Sanchez said when asked if he expects to win the job. “Sure, of course.”
But no one else around the Jets sounds as confident as him. The mantra from Jets’ brass is this will be an open competition for the starting quarterback job between Sanchez, rookie Geno Smith and David Garrard. They are even throwing in Greg McElroy and Matt Simms as part of it.
Sanchez seemed unfazed by the team selecting Smith in the second round of last week’s NFL Draft. He said offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg called him after the pick and said the Jets were “heating up the competition” and “go win the job.”
“There’s a little fire going and that’s good,” Sanchez said. “I’m cool with that. I think it’s good for everybody.”
The fifth-year quarterback has never faced a challenge like this as a Jet. He had a contrived competition with Kellen Clemens as a rookie and then Tim Tebow got here last year, but the team never gave Tebow a shot at the starting job.
“It’s an exciting time,” Sanchez said. “I’m thrilled to compete. It will bring out the very best that I have and that will help the team.”
Center Nick Mangold said you can see a difference in Sanchez already.
“I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something different,” Mangold said. “He’s got like a maturity level difference. There’s something with the way he’s going about his work and the way he’s taken to Marty’s system. I’m hoping for big things because that will help all of us.”
Sanchez is coming off consecutive seasons with 26 turnovers, which led to him losing his grip on the starting job. He said other than Mornhinweg, he did not hear from anyone with the Jets about what Smith’s selection meant for him.
Asked if he’d like some clarity from coach Rex Ryan or general manager John Idzik, Sanchez said: “They don’t owe me that. It’s up to them if they’d like to. I’m free. I’m here.”
The Jets had six quarterbacks after drafting Smith, but cleared some room with the release of Tebow on Monday. Sanchez reiterated what he said on the radio a few weeks ago that the situation last year was not ideal for either of them.
“If you were Tim’s agent and my agent would you say that’s the absolute best position for either of us?” Sanchez said. “Probably not. Tim wanted to play. I wanted to play. Only one guy plays at this position.”
Sanchez said the two were not very close because of the competition.
“We both competed our best, tried to be the best of friends we could,” he said. “I think honestly, under different circumstances we really would be good friends. It’s just hard when you’re competing like that. … If the guy’s got a flat tire on the side of the road, I’m going to stop. I’m not just going to blow by him. At the same time, I’m not sending him gifts on his birthday.”
Now, Sanchez no longer has to look over his shoulder at Tebow. Instead, the Jets dumped Smith in his lap to compete with. The West Virginia rookie will report with the other first-year players next week and then the competition truly begins later this month when the team begins OTAs. Sanchez said he won’t be a “jerk” to Smith but will approach this the same way he did Tebow last year.
“It’s the same,” he said. “I don’t see why it would be any different. I’ll help him out as much as I can but when we’ve got to compete, we’ve got to compete. That’s the way it goes.”