New York Jets Give Mark Brunell First-Team Snaps Rather Than Mark Sanchez

Before the 41-year-old Mark Brunell has to return to the nursing home, he received some of the New York Jets' first team offensive snaps at Wednesday's practice instead of Mark Sanchez. 

ProFootballTalk published the report and suggest that this could be just a motivational move by Rex Ryan, similar to what he did about this time last year. 

Entering Week 12, Sanchez has posted a career-high 79.9 quarterback rating. He has completed 57.1 percent of his passes for 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Granted, these numbers are improvements from his previous two years in the NFL, but it's a matter of being consistent for the USC product. 

At times, Sanchez looks like a Pro Bowl quarterback. He completes nearly every pass he throws, he threads the needle and he makes smart, fast, quick release passes to open receivers. Then, all of a sudden, Sanchez simply falls apart. What's more, this seems to occur when New York needs him the most. 

When Ryan granted Brunell some of the first team snaps last year, it certainly did not benefit Sanchez or the team's offense. From Week 13 until the final week of the season, the team went 1-3. Sanchez threw only one touchdown pass while being picked off a putrid five times.

It's clear that Ryan's tactics of putting pressure on Sanchez did not work effectively a year ago, and it remains to be seen if it will work this time around. 

To me, the main issue is that the Jets have such a short leash on Sanchez. That's the scary part.

New York does not trust Sanchez enough to sling the ball around, despite having a great arm and being in his third-year in the league. 

Of course, we'll have to wait and see how well the 5-5 Jets play against the 5-5 Buffalo Bills this weekend in a huge divisional matchup. 

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