Mark Sanchez: Offensive Regime Change Won't Make Jets QB Any Better

For the first time in his young career, Mark Sanchez will not be taking the New York Jets to the AFC Championship Game.

For that matter, Sanchez and the Jets won't even be playing in the postseason. They lost to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday by the final of 19-17, a result largely aided by a late Sanchez interception.

This loss is likely to bring about plenty of changes on the Jets, particularly when it comes to the offensive coaching staff. Though Rex Ryan has stood up for him throughout the season, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is likely to be relieved of his duties, and it wouldn't be at all shocking if other heads rolled as well.

If so, Sanchez will enter uncharted territory. Here's what Ben Shpigel of The New York Times pointed out on Saturday:

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Based on their reactions the last three times they failed to qualify for the postseason, the Jets would seem poised to make a significant change, and any reckoning would appear to include the maligned offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. As much a friend as his coach, Schottenheimer could be the first mentor to leave Sanchez since Steve Sarkisian, his quarterback tutor at U.S.C., took the head coaching job at the University of Washington in 2008.

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Going back to his high school days, Sanchez has had the luxury of consistency, a rarity in the football world no matter which level we're talking about. In the coming days and weeks, that luxury is going to be taken away from him, putting pressure on him to adjust and, hopefully, become the quarterback the Jets want him to be.

The trouble is that there's only so much a new stable of coaches is going to be able to do. While there's no denying that Schottenheimer had a bad season as New York's offensive coordinator, Sanchez is to blame for his own struggles.

The odd part is that Sanchez actually set a lot of career-highs during the 2011 regular season. He threw a career-high 26 touchdown passes, threw for a career-high 3,474 yards and completed a career-high 56.7 percent of his passes.

Nevertheless, Sanchez still made plenty of mistakes. He threw 18 interceptions and lost a handful of fumbles, and he just wasn't very sharp for the majority of his time under center. 

In other words, Mark Sanchez looked a lot like Mark Sanchez this year. He may not be the worst quarterback in the league, but he's far from elite. With three NFL seasons under his belt, mediocrity appears to be Sanchez's lot in life.

Ideally, a new offensive coordinator will come in and install an offensive system that Sanchez can succeed in. The Jets will go back to running the football successfully, and Sanchez will be in a position to limit his mistakes and grow as a quarterback.

But a new OC won't help Sanchez's infamously bad accuracy, and a new OC will only be able to do so much about Sanchez's infamously bad decision-making. Those are things that Sanchez has to fix on his own.

If anything, the Jets revamping their offensive coaching staff may make Sanchez even worse. He's had a lot of stability throughout his football career, yet the quarterback who stands before us today is one who doesn't appear cut out to be a starter. Take that stability away and Sanchez's days as a starter could be over in the very near future.

Is there hope for Sanchez? Of course there is. But he needs to get better. That starts with improving his accuracy, which is something that is much easier said than done. Then he will have to master whatever offensive system he is given, and he needs to make sure his offensive comrades also have it mastered.

If Mark Sanchez is still Mark Sanchez in 2012, the Jets will have to seriously consider abandoning the experiment.