Jets camp report: Rushing rookie passer? Think twice

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CORTLAND, N.Y. -- All things being equal, rookie Mark Sanchez starts the season at quarterback for the New York Jets. Only there's one problem: All things aren't equal.

Sanchez is the overwhelming favorite to beat out Kellen Clemens because the Jets want him to win the job, because he looked sharp in his preseason debut and, frankly, because he's the better quarterback. If you listened to coach Rex Ryan after last week's 23-20 loss to St. Louis, he all but conceded the race is over.

"It was pretty impressive," he said of Sanchez's play. "He showed us everything we needed to see."

But the Jets should be careful. There's a minefield out there, and it starts with the regular-season schedule. The Jets' first five opponents were a combined 51-29 last season, with two of them division champions -- and that doesn't include New England, whom they play the second weekend.

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Then there's the Jets' offense. It's complicated, with coordinator Brian Schottenheimer saying he wants to return to the club's 2006 scheme, which means more motion and shifting. That takes time, and Sanchez hasn't had a lot of it in the pros.

Last, Sanchez is at a competitive disadvantage because of his experience ... or inexperience. He's just getting started in an offense that Clemens has quarterbacked through four training camps.

I saw Sanchez last week, and, check, he looked lights-out. But so did Ryan Leaf in his pro debut. The Jets should not rush into a decision they eventually will make because if all things wound up being equal next month, I would favor the veteran in the opener -- and the veteran is Clemens.

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Now, let's make one thing clear: The Jets are enamored with Sanchez and it is he -- not Clemens -- who is the franchise quarterback waiting to happen. You don't spend a gazillion dollars on a guy to sit him on the bench. But you don't rush him on the field, either, especially if he's not ready. And that's where New York must be wary.

Sanchez will be the starter sooner or later, and virtually everyone believes it will be sooner. But be careful what you wish for. It's a daunting climb to a season opener for rookies, and Sanchez has limited experience in any offense. Remember, he was the starter at Southern California for one season and left after his junior year.

Clemens is in the competition only because the Jets need someone to push Sanchez, a rabbit -- if you will -- to quicken the pace. If the Jets actually had a conviction about Clemens they wouldn't have traded up to make Sanchez a top-5 draft choice. Sanchez will start, and he will start this season. And he probably will start on Sept. 13.

"We hope the decision makes itself," Schottenheimer said. "That would make it easy for us. We're hoping one of the guys will reach out and grab the reins."

One of the guys did, and that was Sanchez. He hit three of four passes against St. Louis, including a 48-yarder to David Clowney, and led the Jets to a touchdown on his only series. But Clemens didn't exactly embarrass himself. In fact, he didn't miss on any of his four attempts.

Both have had their moments in training camp, like last Tuesday when Clemens lofted a tightly wound spiral 40 yards to receiver Brad Smith, pumping his fist after the completion. Sanchez followed with a touchdown pass in a short-yardage drill before Clemens answered with a TD pass to a leaping Britt Davis after the ball was snapped over Clemens' head.

It was, as Ryan put it, "a good day," but nothing is expected to be decided until the third preseason game. Ryan has said he would like to have a starter by then, which doesn't give Sanchez a lot of time to master a new offense. But that's OK. There is no urgency to hurry him for the Sept. 13 opener in Houston. There is, however, a danger that he will try to get there by making too much happen too soon, and Sanchez knows it.

"As a rookie," he said, "you want to rush things, and you want to be the starter and you want everything to happen right away. But it takes time ... It's hard. You want to throw a touchdown every day, but not every day is going to be like [Tuesday]. Some days there are more incompletions than completions, and it's a rough one out there. You just have to be smart with [the ball], and not rush anything. When the touchdowns are there, take it; and, when they're not, just be smart with the ball. It's an ongoing battle."

Fortunately for Sanchez, he's with the right ballclub. The Jets are built a lot like Ryan's former team, the Baltimore Ravens, which means they will lean heavily on their defense, running game and placekicker. The quarterback doesn't have to be Peyton Manning, but he can't commit major mistakes, either. Look what happened with last year's Ravens when they started a rookie quarterback. They reached the conference championship game because Joe Flacco became -- as Sanchez might put it -- "smarter with the ball," not throwing an interception in 10 of his final 14 starts.

"Our quarterback," Schottenheimer said, "is going to be part of the process. In our passing game, he is not going to have to do it all by himself."

That will help Sanchez, but there are other circumstances that won't -- like the brutal start to the season, for instance. When Flacco started for Baltimore, he took over a club that was 5-11 the year before, not 9-7, like the Jets; and he stepped behind center only because Kyle Boller was hurt and Troy Smith was sick. Clemens is neither, and it just seems to me that with a series of tough games early you think twice about going with a rookie until or unless the veteran demonstrates he can't cut it.

A year ago, Arizona chose Kurt Warner over Matt Leinart because three of the Cardinals' first four games were on the road, and coach Ken Whisenhunt wanted the more experienced hand in hostile environments. Makes sense to me, and I think you know how it turned out. Well, three of the Jets' first five games are on the road, so you can make the same argument here.

"It's logical," Ryan said, "and I can see why you'd say that. Except we're just going to start whichever quarterback is better, and I mean that."

So far, that hasn't been determined, though you would never know it reading the New York press. So let's move to the next factor -- what the Jets are doing on offense. It's a more complex scheme than it was a year ago, and it's more complex than it was two years ago. It's basically the offense they ran in 2006 when the Jets reached the playoffs with Chad Pennington. Pennington was a smart veteran who was able to command an offense that took Clemens, then a rookie, time to learn. Now, Clemens is the veteran, and Sanchez is the first-year student.

"I wouldn't say one guy has an advantage," said wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery, before pausing. "Well, if you've been in the system awhile, of course you have an advantage."

The Jets will try to perk up an offense that wilted down the stretch a year ago, failing to score more than 17 points in four of the club's final five games. A lot of that had to with the quarterback, Brett Favre, who unsuccessfully tried to fight through shoulder injuries and wound up with two touchdowns and nine interceptions his final five starts, four of which the Jets lost. But Favre is gone, and so is the offense he ran.

"Last year we scaled back entirely when Brett came in," Cotchery said of the offense. "We couldn't do it because it would've been too much for him. Now we have everything back in place, and we have guys who will work hard in the system.

"Kellen has been in the system awhile, and guys know all the shifts and motions, so we will be able to do all the multiple things to keep defenses off balance. It's going to benefit us."

Last, of course, there is Sanchez's learning curve. It's steep, and there isn't a lot of time to get it down. That could be a problem for a perfectionist like Sanchez, though it didn't seem to bother him in the Jets' preseason opener. Nevertheless, a coach who knows him said that his only reservation with Sanchez is that, with expectations being what they are in New York, the rookie will try too hard to make things happen and instead commit foolish mistakes.

It's up to the Jets to make sure that doesn't happen. If Sanchez is supposed to be patient, the Jets should be, too.

"My advice," Ryan said, "is just be yourself. Go out, have fun and be yourself. He doesn't have to go out and be Joe Namath or whatever. He can just be himself, and that's good enough.

"The decision [on a starter] is going to be made not just on how you play in a game; it's what is best for our team. Quite honestly, if you can't handle that kind of pressure then how are you going to be the quarterback of the New York Jets? You better be able to handle it, and I think both of those guys can."