With many in the media and around the National Football League criticizing New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan for playing quarterback Mark Sanchez in the fourth quarter of Saturday's preseason game, the coach has at least one supporter: Sanchez himself.
Sanchez was injured in the Jets 24-21 overtime victory over the team's New York state rival Giants Saturday in preseason Week 3 action. Sanchez was hit on a play by Giants defensive tackle Marvin Austin and came up with a hurt shoulder before exiting the game. He was later seen with his shoulder heavily wrapped on the sidelines.
A video of the injury can be seen below:
While Ryan has been on the receiving end of heavy criticisms from nearly everyone who watched the team's potential starting quarterback play and get injured in the fourth quarter of an exhibition game surrounded by rookies, Sanchez hasn't held any doubt in his coach's decision at all, apparently.
"I'm not here to second-guess the coaches," Sanchez said per ESPN. "If they call you to play, you better be ready to play, and I was. So I went in and played and tried to win."
Sanchez went on: "Look, I'm a competitor. And as a player, it's not my job to worry about when you're going in, who's in, what string, this or that. If they call your number, you've got to play and that's what I do, that's what I've always done. That's not my call. That's the coach's decision."
His availability for the Jets Sept. 8 season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is now heavily in question, and rookie quarterback Geno Smith, who is competing with Sanchez for the starting job, didn't look too promising in his first NFL start Saturday when he threw three interceptions.
Meanwhile, Ryan isn't second-guessing himself either and told reporters Monday that he didn't have any regrets about inserting Sanchez into the game, despite all the controversy that has surrounded it.
"From my standpoint, I have to move forward, we have to move forward and that's where we're at," Ryan said per ESPN. "What's happened in the past, you can't do anything about. You've got to focus on the present and the future, and that's where we are right now."
The Jets quarterback situation has been shrouded in mystery all preseason long, and it will continue to be that way as Sanchez reportedly won't be able to practice until Friday at the very earliest, if at all this week. A Week 4 starter for the Jets final preseason tune-up against the Eagles at home Thursday has yet to be announced, and the competition may spill over to Week 1 of the regular season.
While the Jets listed Sanchez as day-to-day, an MRI reportedly showed that he had a bruised right shoulder joint, and it may be at least a week before he could throw again.
Ryan said he threw Sanchez in the game because he wanted to beat the Giants. He also got very defensive and testy in his postgame conference with reporters Saturday. The interview can be seen below:
Sanchez and Smith's summer-long competition is destined to bleed into the fall, but it's too soon to tell if Sanchez will be ready to play anytime soon.
Sanchez, if he wins the starting job, will enter his fifth year with the Jets, and looks to improve on a very shaky track record and mediocre 2012 where he went 246-for-453 in 15 games for 2,883 passing yards while throwing 13 touchdown passes and 18 interceptions.
The Jets haven't made the playoffs since 2010 and are hoping to improve on a sub-par 6-10 record and third place AFC East finish from a year ago. The Jets may be destined for another year of failure as where most teams have their quarterback situation set by the last week of the preseason, New York's offense may not be fully settled by the first week of the regular season.
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