Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow Are Not the Answer for the New York Jets

The New York Jets have reached the AFC Championship twice in the past three years but have yet to get over the hump and make their first Super Bowl appearance since 1968.

The Jets’ defense has been stifling at times and the running game has been above average to excellent over the past three years.

So why have the Jets been unable to move past the AFC Championship game?

The simple answer is that they are lacking the fire-power at the quarterback position, and neither Mark Sanchez nor Tim Tebow will be the team’s ultimate solution to this problem.    

The NFL is a far different game today than it was in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

The early NFL was dominated by defense and the running game.

That began to change around the mid-80s when teams like the San Francisco 49ers began focusing all of their attention around the passing attack, which proved to be highly successful, and the rest of the NFL followed in suit.

Just have a brief look at the list of Super Bowl champion quarterbacks over the past 20 years.  It’s a virtual who’s who of present and future Hall of Famers.  

List of Super Bowl champion quarterbacks since 1993:

1993—Troy Aikman

1994—Troy Aikman

1995—Steve Young

1996—Troy Aikman

1997—Brett Favre

1998—John Elway

1999—John Elway

2000—Kurt Warner

2001—Trent Dilfer

2002—Tom Brady

2003—Brad Johnson

2004—Tom Brady

2005—Tom Brady

2006—Ben Roethlisberger

2007—Peyton Manning

2008—Eli Manning

2009—Ben Roethlisberger

2010—Drew Brees

2011 —Aaron Rodgers

2012 —Eli Manning

Aside from just two—Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson–all of these players have been amongst the best quarterbacks in the league over the past two decades, and in many cases you are looking at quarterbacks that would rank amongst the best of all-time.

The modern day NFL is dominated by the passing game, so if you can’t throw the football and execute big plays through the air, you are going to have a very difficult time winning the Super Bowl.  

Last season Sanchez had a QB ratings which ranked 23rd in the league, while Tebow ranked 27th.

In 2010 Sanchez’s rating ranked 27th, and in 2009 he ranked 28th—this while the Jets have ranked near the top of every defensive category since 2009 and within the top five in rushing yards in both 2009 and 2010.

One doesn’t need to spend a great deal of time digging into the Jets’ stats before the team’s real issue becomes glaringly obvious.

Fix the passing game—a.k.a.  acquire a quality quarterback—and the Jets may finally get back to the big game while their last great QB, Joe Namath, is still amongst the living.