Weatherford drop-kicks Sanchez' maturation

Before he was a Super Bowl-winning punter for the Giants, running around Manhattan with a big diamond ring and a football helmet on his head this week, Steve Weatherford was a Jet. And as a Jet, he was a teammate of Mark Sanchez’ when the kid from USC first arrived in town.

On an NFL.com podcast this week, Weatherford said he hasn’t noticed much progress from those first few days when Sanchez was a rookie.

“I like Mark, I think he's a very talented quarterback, but from my standpoint, I haven’t seen a lot of maturation,” Weatherford said. "When you're a quarterback and you come in, and you're expected to be the face of the franchise, and you're expected to lead the team, that's a lot to take on as a rookie. But as the years go on, I think you're expected to mature, skill-wise, and also mature as a leader, and to be honest with you, as much as I like the guy, I just haven't seen that."

To be fair, Weatherford has not been in the Jets locker room since the end of the 2010 season when he was not re-signed by the team. But he likely still has connections within the Jets team (although probably not special teams coach Mike Westhoff) and playing in New York – not only the same city but in the same stadium, in fact, with the Jets – affords him a close-up of how Sanchez played in 2011.

Weatherford did say he is "scratching his head" trying to figure out why the Jets brought in Tim Tebow and noted that he believes that Sanchez is the future for the Jets. But the punter certainly gave that future a bit of a kick.