New York Jets: Evaluating Mark Sanchez's Progression in the NFL

It's been a rather shaky three seasons for Mark Sanchez, highlighted by two AFC Championship appearances. But it's now hit rock bottom, as he's been labeled as a scapegoat for this past season's troubles and is now being questioned about his leadership skills. 

There's definitely mixed feelings about Sanchez across the NFL, with many believing that he cannot take the New York Jets where they want to go, but there are still some believers out there.

With that being said, let's take a look at Sanchez's progression in the NFL and ultimately decide if he's fit to be New York's starting quarterback. 

Accuracy Throughout the Game

How accurate is Mark Sanchez?

Well, his career completion percentage is rather low, as it stands at 55.3 percent through his first three seasons, but there are signs of improvement.

Each and every season Sanchez improves that percentage by an average of 1.45 percent—which isn't all that bad. 

However, Sanchez's 56.7 completion rate from last season is far too low for a quarterback with the weapons that he had. It's also not a very good sign to see his completion percentage take a dip, as he completed just 54.1 percent of his fourth quarter passes—you do not want to see your quarterback lose his accuracy as the game goes on. 

Through Sanchez's first three seasons, he's been rather consistent for his completion percentage—but hovering around 56 percent is certainly not acceptable. 

If Sanchez and the Jets want to win a Super Bowl, he's going to have to be far more accurate, as the NFL is such a pass-heavy league. 

Ability to Put the Ball Where the Receiver Can Catch

Throwing a catchable pass is pretty much all a quarterback can do. However, this is something that Mark Sanchez struggles with.

41.3 percent of Sanchez's incompletions in 2011 were poor throws, while 17.9 percent of his total attempts were poor throws.

This is definitely alarming, as Sanchez had one of the lowest yards per-attempt ratios this past season, averaging just 6.4 yards. 

Ability to Convert on Third Downs

I think that we can all agree that elite quarterbacks are able to convert on third downs, right? Well, this is a huge area of concern for Mark Sanchez. 

This past season with the Jets, Sanchez completed just 34.4 percent of his third down attempts.

It's definitely expected that a quarterback's completion percentage would be a little lower from his career average, but 34.4 percent is pretty alarming. 

Ball Security

This is something that Mark Sanchez hasn't been all that great at: taking care of the football.

Sanchez has thrown a career 55 touchdowns compared to 51 interceptions. That's not a very good ratio of touchdowns to interceptions.

But let's take a look at where Sanchez's interceptions actually occur.

For starters, Sanchez was picked off 18 times this past season, as 7.7 percent of his incompletions were intercepted. 

Three of his 18 interceptions came inside of the opponent's 20 yard-line, while two of those came inside of New York's own 20-yard line. So 13 of his 18 interceptions came in the middle of the field, rather in critical areas. 

But one thing that really stands out is that 10 of those interceptions came in the second half, and 10 is certainly more than half of 18. 

You definitely don't want to see your quarterback turning the ball over at all, and it's certainly assuring that Sanchez isn't doing it in critical areas of the field, but he did throw the fifth most second half interceptions this past season. 

Efficiency in the Redzone

In the NFL, you cannot win games by kicking field goals—you need to score touchdowns.

For Mark Sanchez, his play in the redzone hasn't been all that horrendous, but there is still room for improvement. 

This past season Sanchez completed 53.2 percent of his passes inside the opponent's 20-yard line—which is pretty consistent to his career average. However, Sanchez saw even more of a dip just 10 yards away, as he completed just 47.1 percent of his passes. 

Despite having such a low completion rate in the redzone, Sanchez still managed to find a way to post an 89.1 quarterback rating. 

The redzone play for Sanchez hasn't been all that bad when you take a deep look into the stats, and this is one area where I believe is one of his strengths. 

Efficiency in the Fourth Quarter

While playing in the fourth quarter in 2011, Mark Sanchez posted an 83.6 quarterback rating—which is certainly promising, as it's nearly four points higher than his season average. 

Sanchez does play well in crunch time for the Jets, as he threw a total of 10 touchdowns in the fourth quarter, which was tied for the fifth most in the NFL and the second most in the AFC, just one behind Tom Brady.

Conclusion

Do I believe that the New York Jets can win with Mark Sanchez? 

This is certainly a tough question, but if Sanchez continues to improve like the way he's been doing ever since he was drafted fifth overall in 2009, then, yes, I do believe that Sanchez can be a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

A lot of the criticism that has been placed on Sanchez should have been placed on New York's former offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer. 

I truly thought that the play-calling was horrendous under Schottenheimer and that it's like he had far too short of a leash on Sanchez. 

What Rex Ryan and the team's newly hired offensive coordinator, Tony Sparano, need to do in 2012 is just let Mark Sanchez be Mark Sanchez.

Sanchez has a solid arm, he's mobile in the pocket and can read defenses—the Jets just need to let him play.

I may have criticized Sanchez in the past, but by analyzing his stats a little bit further, I actually like what I see. He plays well in the fourth quarter and finishes games strong. That's what I like to see.

Call me crazy, but I'm a Mark Sanchez believer entering 2012