Mark Sanchez Fights for Position and AFC Title

Amid rumors that the New York Jets may be privately looking for a new quarterback in 2012, they vehemently deny any such claims.

It started on Monday with Coach Rex Ryan defending Mark Sanchez as a quarterback, and Sanchez himself on Tuesday addressing the claims personally: “I’m not here to defend why I should be quarterback. When it comes to work ethic, the people in the building know how hard I work and how much I care about playing here and how much I love this team and franchise… We’ll assess the offseason when that time comes.”

The Jets have been hoping that Sanchez would step up and become the great quarterback they believe he can be. However his regular season performances have paled in comparison to his postseason starts. He has been unable to create the same sense of timing and execution that he has had in postseasons past.

Sanchez has also admitted that he has not been able to achieve to the level expected of him. “Any time you don’t accomplish your goals, that’s considered a failure, at least in my book,” Sanchez said.  “That doesn’t mean we don’t have the pieces.  That doesn’t mean we didn’t have opportunities.  It just means we didn’t capitalize on those opportunities.  To me, unless we’re playing in the Super Bowl each year . . . those are the kind of standards we set for ourselves.  We had made the goal early in the season of winning our division and we didn’t accomplish that.  Here we are fighting for our lives at the end of the season.”

There is still hope for Mark Sanchez and the Jets, though. The Jets week 17 game against the Texans could prove to be fruitful with a win and a trip to New England to play the Patriots where they could potentially win the AFC title. However much of that depends on Mark Sanchez.