Film Room: Mike & Mike on QB Battles
Mike & Mike talk about Kellen Clemens and Mark Sanchez and who will win the job this fall, along with many other QB battles around the league.
While Mike Golic thinks that Sanchez might play much of the season, he said he “… wouldn’t be shocked if maybe Kellen Clemens starts the year”
Greenie then disagreed noting that “I would be, Rex Ryan was a coach in Baltimore last year that started a rookie and went to the AFC East championship game, I think he’ll start the rookie.”
I think likening one situation to another just because both players are rookies, or for whatever reason is overly simplistic.
It sounds nice on a Subway Fresh Take where you can’t expound on much, but my hope is that if Sanchez gets the job it will because he’s the best man for the job, and gives the team the best chance to win … not because he’s a rookie and so was Joe Flacco.
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I completely agree with you, it is almost ridiculous to judge Sanchez with the basis of Joe Flacco’s situation. Rex Ryan is a coach who looks for the best man for the job. Flacco was started out of desperation and because he showed the necessary skills, not because of some belief that rookies can take you all the way. Sanchez would be started over a QB who I feel is certainly ready and qualified. And I do think if he gets the job it is because he has proven he is much more qualified.
If we assume Sanchez will be good because of Flacco, then we should certainly assume Kellen Clemens will be good because of Drew Brees. And plus Drew Brees is the more powerful quarterback so we should just play him. And hey Drew Brees is the quarterback for the Saints who have reggie bush, so we should certainly run the ball because Clemens could probably make our guys like reggie bush or something. I think that’s the way it works.
Jones and washington are better than bush
Of course he’ll start the rookie because he had soooo much to do with Flacco starting in Baltimore…/sarcasm
I used to like greenberg because he’s jets fan, now i can’t stand him.
Exaclty no comparison except Ryan said he thought Flaco was the best option from the start.
So to extrapolate Sanchez being chosen is absurd.
Still it may happen.
furthers my point on why some of these so called “analysts” are clueless, greenberg is officially a complete idiot. flacco did NOT win that starting job last year, he was the 3RD STRING QB for crying out loud. all the qb’s got injured or hurt, he was the only one that was healthy, ravens got lucky and got decent production out the kid….case closed. he’s not a star or some great talent by any means.
Clemens should and probably will start. Experience, experience, experience. In my opinion Kellen is not that big of a “lump on a log” to where he will let a rookie QB with his first year in a sytem beat him out in training camp playing against a Rex Ryan defense where he almost brought the jets back to win the game. Mangini & Co.(for all the bad they did) does not draft lazy “non-students” of the game. Although from what i hear and read Sanchez is a great student of the game as well and definitely not lazy.
With all that being said, Sanchez will definitely get his shot, whether via injury or next year or barring an unproductive Clemens performance this year. Sanchez will one day be “the man”. The one thing that is nice about the Jets this year is we perhaps do not even need him to start this year.
Sanchez will start because Clemens is a career backup.
I hope the Jets just start the player best prepared for the job. Throwing Sanchez to the wolves just because they can isnt the best of ideas.
For someone that knows sports as well as Greenie’, I’m amazed how much dumb **** comes out of his mouth whenever he talks about the Jets.
“I think he’ll start the rookie again”, Greenberg says. Am I missing something here. Was it Ryan’s decision to start Flacco or was it Harbaugh’s decision? What is Greenberg talking about. He sounds so stupid. Also, didn’t Flacco get the job by default? Weren’t the two guys in front of him hurt? I am so tired of people saying that since Ryan was the DC on the team that started a rookie, it means he will start Sanchez. I am sure he will just start which ever guy he thinks gives us the best chance to win.
How could Clemens be considered a career backup
when there was Chad Pennington in front of him? Clemens development was also derailed because Ownership jumped at the opportunity to have Farve QB the team despite anything the QBs on the roster showed in camp. Thats why Pennington was dropped like a bad habit. How can anyone be considered a career backup when they haven’t been given a chance. Now the Jets have drafted Sanchez . Here’s hoping that he is the One to lead the Jets to the ultimate victory, but no one really knows the outcome. For all anyone knows, Clemens could actually still be the QB some of you have been searching for. Career backup? It is still too early to say.
Lonnie G,
My sentiments exactly. It was Harbaugh’s decision, not Rex’s, and Flacco only played because the other two guys got hurt.
I don’t think Rex will be stupid enough to throw Sanchez to the wolves simply to start a rookie. The QB that offers the team the best chance to win will play, and in my estimation that will be KC, at least to start the season.
Remember, Clemens is not all that experienced. He’s had only a grand total of 8 NFL starts and in one of those, he was knocked out in the first quarter. Plus, he had multiple chances to wrest the starting QB position away from Chad and couldn’t do it. IMO, he’s as much of a question mark as a starter as Sanchez, who was the starting QB on USC…the closest team to an NFL franchise in college football. Clemens’ last full season start at Oregon in his senior season lasted only 8 games and he was in a spread offense. Sure, Clemens has more NFL experience, but that doesn’t mean he’d be automatically a better choice at QB.
Greenie’s reference to Ryan’s “choice” of Flacco came from a Ryan presser where he said, in effect, that he knew early on that Flacco was the best choice for QB1 and expressed that opinion in coaches meetings, but Harbaugh went, initially, with the vets. So, that was what Greenie was alluding to in his 30 seconds.
I’m not disputing who the best QB will be, I’m just saying that Rex won’t start Sanchez just for the sake of starting Sanchez. Hopefully he’ll be smart and start the QB who gives them the best chance to win, and if that happens to be Sanchez , then so be it.
Flacco and Matt Ryan set up some unrealistic expectations, and it’s going to bite both Sanchez and Stafford (who is apparently also being hurried into the lineup). I understand the argument that the best guy should play, and if Sanchez and Stafford beat out their competition, then so be it, but people shouldn’t expect them to go out on the field and not struggle once the season starts.
I agree with seanmac, to a point. This decade we have seen a number of rookie QB’s play competently, like Ryan, Flacco and Big Ben. While he wasn’t nearly as good as those three, Trent Edwards played decently for the Bills as a rookie, as did Cutler for the Broncos. I also thought Leinart did a decent job on an awful Cards team. And, while Kyle Orton had a statistically awful rookie season, his record was 10-5. Similarly, Vince Young had an 8-5 record, despite awful stats. Will Sanchez have an over 60% completion percentage and more TDs than INTs. Maybe not, but if he’s close then he’ll gain valuable experience to build on for his second year. I don’t realistically expect Clemens to be much better than Sanchez, but every start for Clemens takes valuable experience away from Sanchez. On that basis, Sanchez should start, assuming he’s signed and in training camp on time.
Payton Manning had an awful rookie season, but responded with an excellent sophmore year. He says that he would never have had such a good second year were it not for the experience he gained in that first year. So if KC and MS are fairly close, start MS and let him get the experience.
Yes, but Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning. In any event, he didn’t have a terrible rookie season. He threw a lot of picks, but he was in a division where four teams made the playoffs, and if you look at his schedule adjusted numbers, they look much better. He graded out as about the 19th best quarterback in the league; bad for Peyton Manning, fine for a rookie (better, for instance, than Joe Flacco did last year). Ryan Leaf, in contrast, was the 48th best quarterback out of a list of 49.
In any event, you don’t want to compare guys who started 45 games in college with guys who started 16 in terms of where they’ll be on the learning curve and how likely they are to be in position to even benefit from the experience.
My post was not meant to spark a debate about the virtues of Payton Manning as a QB, but to merely point out that if all things are equal or nearly equal then start the QB who you envision as the QB of the future. As in this case being that we drafted MS #5 overall, I would assume it would be him.
By the way, if you don’t consider setting the rookie QB record for most Interceptions in a season, then no, he didn’t have a terrible season.
He threw a ton of interceptions, but he also threw for a ton of yardage, and he did it against a very difficult slate of defenses. Not all basic stats are created equal, and no, Manning did not have a terrible season.