Will Mark Sanchez be better than Matt Ryan?
This Sunday, both Mark Sanchez & Matt Ryan be the starting quarterbacks for their respective teams, the New York Jets & the Atlanta Falcons. Both quarterbacks will be under a very intense microscope.
Sanchez, the #5 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft out of USC, will be taking the Jets to Reliant Stadium to take on the Houston Texans in his first NFL start. Ryan, the #3 pick in the 2008 NFL Draft out of Boston College, will be hosting the Miami Dolphins at the Georgia Dome in his 18th NFL start.
Both quarterbacks expect to take their teams to the playoffs (and eventually the Promise Land), but only one of them has done so. Along with picking up a Nike sponsor last year (the only member of his Draft Class to do so), Ryan was voted the NFL AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and into the Pro Bowl.
He turned around a franchise recovering from the Michael Vick fiasco and a 4-12 season into an 11-5 playoff team that would eventually lose to the Super Bowl Runner-Up Arizona Cardinals. In 2008-09, he threw for over 3,400 yards & 16 TDs, while completing 61.1% of his passes.
The bar has been set in Atlanta and the fans & fellow Falcons (along with many Fantasy Football “Owners”) want to see him improve upon those numbers. This will be no easy task for anybody, even though he, Head Coach Mike Smith, and Pro Bowl running back Michael “Burner” Turner will all be settling into their second season as The Man.
Sanchez is inheriting a playoff contending team that was 8-3 last season before losing 4 of their last 5 games and finishing 9-7.
The Jets are a little thin at receiver (unless they trade for Brandon Marshall), but are extremely strong everywhere else. They have Pro Bowler & 1,300-yard runner Thomas Jones (almost 5,000 rushing yards in the last 4 years), the versatile Leon Washington (Pro Bowler & #1 in All-Purpose Yards in ‘08), and a very strong defense that finished seventh in rushing defense last year.
Similar to Ryan’s situation, Sanchez will be playing for a rookie Head Coach in Rex Ryan. Sanchez should feel very comfortable with this though as Rex Ryan was the Assistant Head Coach & Defensive Coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens last year, which featured rookie quarterback Joe Flacco (like Matt Ryan, Flacco led his team to an 11-5 record and the playoffs as well).
The biggest knock on Sanchez coming into the NFL Draft was his lack of experience. While Ryan started more games than Sanchez in college, Sanchez will actually be older than Ryan in his first start.
He also put up comparable numbers to Ryan in their final years of college before throwing for 413 yards & 5 TDs in a blowout Rose Bowl victory with the USC Trojans over Penn State, while picking up Offensive Player of the Game.
This GQ Model now brings his swagger and Orange County laid back charisma to the Big Apple to try and do what Ryan and a handful of other rookie quarterbacks (read: Flacco & Ben Roethlisberger) have done in the past few years, which is take the reins and drive their team straight into the playoffs.
So…will Mark Sanchez be better than Matt Ryan? I am a little biased to say yes, but not this year. Sanchez has all the tools and will have an outstanding career, but the standard has been set by Ryan. He was top notch in 2008 playing Quarterback & Savior for a franchise in need.
I am so sick on baseball…let’s kick the NFL Season off!
Photos: Kevin Cox/Getty Images & William Perlman/The Star-Ledger
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That is some inspirational stuff. Never knew that opinions could be this varied. Thanks in the course of all the interest to offer such reassuring knowledge here.