Expect turbulent takeoff for Jets' rookie QB

Chicago general manager Jerry Angelo had it right when he said it all starts with the quarterback, which is why I worry about the New York Jets. Their quarterback hasn't started an NFL game and barely started more than one season in college.

Don't get me wrong: I liked the drafting of Mark Sanchez and think he can be the franchise quarterback the Jets envision. But that doesn't happen overnight. There will be what coaches euphemistically call "growing pains," which means get ready for some bad reads, some bad throws and some bad reviews.

The preseason was plenty fast. As Mark Sanchez is about to learn, the regular season is even more frenetic. (Getty Images)

"It's going to be tough," said New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, "because fans are going to expect great things. It takes a long time to get comfortable, and fans are expecting things to happen right away."

Manning should know. The first pick of the 2004 draft, he didn't start until the 10th game that year and did not win until the season finale. In between he had six losses and one forgettable performance where he achieved the rarest of all passer ratings, a zero-point-zero. Of course, he wound up taking the Giants to the playoffs -- and one Super Bowl victory -- in each year afterward, but his rookie season was, by his admission, "a grind."

Now fast forward to Sanchez, and let's see what we have. Unlike Manning, he won't sit and wait. Unlike Manning, his résumé is slim. Unlike Manning, he won't be tutored by a decorated veteran like Kurt Warner. Unlike Manning, he will be expected to pay off immediately for a team that just missed the playoffs.

But here's the biggest catch of all: Unlike Manning, Sanchez starts with a bear of a schedule. Look what's out there for his first five games: He opens at Houston, where the Texans won six of eight last season and where they're a 4½-point favorite Sunday. He returns home against New England, where I guarantee the Patriots are favored. Then it's home to Tennessee where the Titans get the nod, off to New Orleans where the Saints will be picked and over to Miami where, you guessed it, the Dolphins should be favored. That's 5-for-5, folks, and if Sanchez and the Jets manage to win more than one I'll be shocked.

I mean, what he's looking at isn't so much an education as it is the NFL's version of waterboarding. There are three road games in there. There are two division champions. There is New England. And there isn't a losing record anywhere. In short, there is what Eli Manning would call "a grind," and I hope Jets fans, the Jets organization and Mark Sanchez are prepared for the inevitable bumps.

I know Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco took their teams to the playoffs in their rookie seasons, but they're the exceptions. Manning is more the rule, and take your pick: Eli or Peyton. Peyton was 3-13 his first season as a starter. My point is: It's tough enough to make an impact as a young quarterback, but when you complicate it with a killer schedule it's damn near impossible.

Yeah, well, people tell me to look at Sanchez against the Giants. OK, he looked good. But I watched Ryan Leaf dazzle opponents his first summer, too. Then the games counted, and Leaf faced defenses he either hadn't seen or couldn't figure out, and he not only sat down, he was drummed out of the league. The Chargers desperately wanted Leaf to make an immediate impact, and they weren't prepared for him to fail.

I mention that because I attended Sanchez's first start, a preseason game against Baltimore, and he wasn't just off -- he was dreadful, throwing an interception for a touchdown on his first pass, a near interception for a touchdown on the second, getting sacked, botching a handoff, taking two delay-of-game penalties and, in general, running a clinic on how not to play the position. So he responded by throwing a touchdown pass on his last series. He flunked the exam.

Yet he was named the starter the following week, which tells you one thing: There never was a quarterback competition. Sanchez was the choice all along, which is fine, because Kellen Clemens didn't exactly light it up, either, but when you start a rookie you better be prepared for the potholes up ahead. I don't know that the Jets or their fans are, but they should be after that episode in Baltimore.

"The game's too fast for him," one of the Ravens said afterward, while another wondered why Sanchez had so much trouble reading the Baltimore defense. "It's Rex Ryan's defense," he said. "It's the same defense he faces every day in practice. He shouldn't have been confused."

The consensus: Sanchez is a talented quarterback with promise, but he's a quarterback who needs more time. A lot more time.

That doesn't make him unusual. It makes him a rookie quarterback in the midst of on-the-job training. Normally, it takes patience and understanding to become successful, but tell that to Jets fans. Sanchez has almost no margin for error. And that could be a problem.