Was Pete Carroll Right?: Should Mark Sanchez Have Stayed at USC?

Three weeks into the season, Mark Sanchez had his New York Jets out to a surprising 3-0 start. The draft’s fifth overall selection last spring was earning ridiculous nicknames like “Sanchize” and was the toast of the town.

The former USC quarterback was also quickly becoming the "Matt Ryan/Joe Flacco unflappable rookie QB" story of the year in the NFL.

Then the wheels came off.

Now, nine weeks into this NFL season, the Jets having lost five of their last six and standing at 4-5, the thought of Sanchez being the "Sanchize" might have Jets fans feeling queasy.

Sanchez's rough demise these past few weeks sent me back to January, where USC coach Pete Carroll delivered some...not so kind words regarding Sanchez's decision to declare for the NFL draft. (Check out the video here .)

Let's just take a snippet of Carroll's comments:

"The facts are so strong against this decision,” Carroll said. “After analyzing all the information, the truth is there—he should’ve stayed for another year.”

Yikes. That's harsh. But he didn't end there.

"One more year of running a team is almost priceless, so he lost the chance to fully prepare himself and become the very best he could be before going to the NFL," Carroll continued.

Okay. Clearly Sanchez's decision to enter the draft agreed with Carroll's stomach as much as week-old Chinese food.

At the time, Carroll caught a great deal of flak in the media for his comments. Media pundits ripped him for tearing down a former player, for airing his dirty laundry with Sanchez in the public, and for possibly putting USC's interests ahead of Sanchez's.

But now, with the Jets on life support in the AFC East and the USC Trojans facing the bitter reality of likely not winning the Pac-10 for the first time in eight seasons, is it too soon to ask whether both Carroll and Sanchez were in the wrong?

During Sanchez's 3-0 start, he completed 49 of 83 passes for 606 yards (59.0 percent completion), four touchdowns, and two picks, with a passer rating of 89.0 (and a rushing touchdown to boot).

In the six games since, Sanchez has completed 81 of 161 passes for 1,049 yards (50.3 percent completion), five touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, with a passer rating of 64.9 (and two rushing touchdowns, along with two fumbles).  

ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook loves citing this statistic about passer rating, and it's too good not to share in this situation: "If every attempt by a quarterback falls to the ground incomplete, his rating is 39.6."  

These stats place Sanchez somewhere between a Ryan/Flacco-esque rookie savior and a JaMarcus Russell-esque franchise train wreck.  

So was Carroll right all along? Would an extra year at USC have prepared Sanchez for this midseason swoon?

Well, yes and no. In the first three games, Sanchez came out firing and proved that he belonged in the NFL—defensive coordinators have simply had more time to pore over tapes of the rookie and break down his weaknesses in the past few games.

It's also extremely hard to say that Carroll had only his player's best intentions in mind, looking at what has become of the once-proud USC dynasty this season in college football. While Sanchez certainly couldn't fix the defense (55 points to Stanford ?), Carroll knew that Sanchez did provide USC their best chance at a national title shot.  

Without Sanchez, the Trojans likely won't even be playing for the Rose Bowl.

NFL fans must remember that Ryan and Flacco were outliers for rookie quarterbacks. Typically, rookie quarterbacks need an adjustment period to learn the speed of the NFL game, and that adjustment period sometimes even takes years.  

Flacco and Ryan being able to step into their offenses on opening day last season and lead their teams into the playoffs was nothing short of remarkable, and Sanchez should not be held to those expectations.

The Jets have a promising core this year and next, with Sanchez at QB, the trio of Thomas Jones, Leon Washington (when he returns from surgery next season), and Shonn Greene in the backfield, receivers Braylon Edwards and Jerricho Cotchery out wide, and tight end Dustin Keller manning the middle of the field.  

Understand that the Jets threw Sanchez to the metaphorical NFL lions (Bill Belichick in his second game? Really?) and accept that these next seven games will likely feature an NFL rookie going through the typical growing pains that most rookies confront.  

Regardless of how the Sanchez situation turns out, Jets fans could have it worse. They could be former Jets head coach Eric Mangini and the Cleveland Browns.