Carroll and Sanchez might have traded hugs for handshakes but the coach feels for his former QB. (US Presswire)

Back in 2009, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, who was then the USC coach, spoke bluntly about quarterback Mark Sanchez's decision to leave school early to enter the NFL Draft.

"We don't see this decision the same," he said at the time. "Mark is going against the grain on this decision. He knows that. He knows that coming out early is a tremendous challenge for a quarterback. And the statistics don't back up that it's easy to be successful the way he's going about it. We know that, he knows that. ... I don't agree with the assessment of the decision."

The Jets wound up taking Sanchez in the first round and he's been the starter ever since. New York went to the AFC Championship Game in Sanchez's first two seasons but they're 11-14 since. A lot of that has to do with his lack of development, but some of it is a function of the dearth of talent on the roster.

Either way, Carroll's comments were dredged up this week ahead of the Jets-Seahawks get-together. And after Seattle shellacked New York 28-7 (the Jets couldn't even manage an offensive touchdown), Carroll, like everybody else on the planet, remains confused by the whole Sanchez-Tebow dynamic.

"I think he is in a very difficult situation and the whole emphasis of the two quarterbacks thing is really hard," he told KIRO-AM. "You saw [Sunday] it didn’t get very much for them. It’s gotta be a little bit more disruptive, but I feel for him. I think Tim Tebow is an extraordinary … player and professional athlete, but this whole factor has been really hard on him. I’m sure it’s been really confusing to their fans and that park, at home, has to be really hard on him, too. I know I haven’t seen a game there, but I can tell what is happening. I think they are hard on him at the stadium, so that’s as hard as it’s going to get. ...

"It’s just a distraction,” Carroll continued. “It’s mixed signals that go out. Their fans are torn up. If they didn’t have a situation like this, they wouldn’t be hooting and hollering probably the way they do at (Sanchez), so it wouldn’t be as difficult. That’s just part of it. I do feel for Mark and anybody that would be in that situation.”

We're not sure if Carroll would include Rex Ryan since he's partly responsible for the first quarterback controversy to lack an actual quarterback.

Whatever, Ryan insists that Sanchez will remain the starter. And despite Sanchez's career lows in completion percentage (52 percent) and yards per attempt (6.3) there aren't many people who think Tebow should get a shot. Put in ironic terms: Tebow's presence -- which was supposed to push Sanchez -- has had the opposite effect. No matter how bad Sanchez plays, he can't lose his job.

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