NFL Preview: Sanchez ready for next step

The training wheels come off for an NFL quarterback in his third year in the league.

That's how the saying goes. That's not how it goes for Mark Sanchez, whose third season in the NFL will not answer the "Can he handle it?" question.

It will, ideally, answer the "Can he win it all?" question.

"The first year, you're sometimes not even playing. They're holding a clipboard and all that kind of stuff," Rex Ryan said. "The next year they may get some action and things. But this is the year you take the big step in leadership, and you take it in just recognizing the defense, protecting the football."

And, in Sanchez's case, trying to do what the Jets haven't done in his first two seasons: Reach, and win, a Super Bowl.

"To me, that's what this is all about," Sanchez said. "We've had a lot of success my first two years here, but at the end of the day, after that last game, it's just an empty feeling inside. We want to get there this year and win it."

To get there, Sanchez -- despite having started six playoff games before turning 25 -- will have to take a big step forward. It won't be as big as if he'd been watching and learning his first year, then taking his lumps his second year, but still big.

SEE PHOTOSHit or miss: Jets' 1st-round picks since 1986

When the lockout finally finished, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and Sanchez went over some of the details of Sanchez's 2010 season. The Jets improved to 11-5 (from 9-7 in 2009), they made a return trip to the AFC Championship Game and Sanchez's numbers improved, as they do for most quarterbacks in a second season as a starter.

His touchdown-interception numbers went from 12-20 to 17-13. He threw for 847 more yards. But the glaring number, for the coaching staff and the quarterback, was 54.8 -- Sanchez's completion percentage. It's a shockingly low figure for the leader of an 11-5 team, and for one who is a 60.5-percent passer in the postseason.

"He's too good a passer, he has too much 'arm talent,' as coaches like to say, to be a 54-percent quarterback," Schottenheimer said. "So we broke down as much as we could."

That meant watching tape of every one of Sanchez's 229 incompletions from the 2010 regular season. There were more drops than the previous year, and Jerricho Cotchery's team-high eight were among the reasons he was deemed expendable. Ryan wanted someone more surehanded to give Sanchez more leeway.

But there were a lot of situations where Sanchez "got greedy," as Schottenheimer put it. Trying to put the ball where a good NFL defensive back could easily defend it, trying to go for pinpoint throws when checking down would have been the better option.

"It's crazy to think I've only completed a little more than half my throws," Sanchez said. "I have to be better than that for us to win."

Another area in which Sanchez has improved is leadership -- on and off the field. On the field, his cool demeanor in the huddle is noticeable. "He's in charge, you know that," Plaxico Burress said. "He's got the right attitude."

Plus, he's gotten better at recognizing defenses and adjusting calls. Where Eli Manning had more of a trial by fire when he became the Giants starter, making the first call of who the middle linebacker is and making adjustments as needed, Sanchez had center Nick Mangold making the defensive calls at the line when Sanchez was a rookie.

It happened last year, too, but Sanchez had learned enough to identify defensive fronts as well as Mangold does. This year, Sanchez still has Mangold, but Sanchez can adjust as needed.

"He's at a point this year where we let him trump: If Nick sees something and makes a call and Mark wants to change it, he can change it," quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh said. "And that's a big step, because it lets us know that he's aware, that he understands the run scheme, he understands the protection scheme, he understands who needs to be pointed out, and then there's a lot of communication that goes on from there.

"Once that's established, you're seeing a lot of communication from him to his receivers, from him to his backs, and that's a must at this level, because everything is based on that. So, we do put a lot of faith in him, that he's learned some things new. And the more we can give him that he shows us he can digest and handle, the more we'll give him."

There's also the off-the-field leadership. It was Sanchez who spoke up and tried to rally the Jets when they were left for dead in Pittsburgh in January, trailing 24-3 at the half in the AFC title game.

"I think when I found out about that, it said volumes about what type of leader he can be," Boomer Esiason said. "There's a reason Rex put the C on his jersey this year, and it's not just because it's his third year in the league."

He was playing not to lose as a rookie, and playing to his team's strengths as a second-year quarterback, letting the run game and defense dominate. But as Sanchez says now, even with all the weapons around him, it's on him to be the difference-maker.

"People are watching Rex and people are watching me. I know that," he said. "You want that responsibility, to have the broad shoulders to carry it."

Holding his own

A comparison of Mark Sanchez with some top quarterbacks through their first two season.

An NFL scout assesses Mark Sanchez

What he does well: Adequate arm strength. Can make all the throws. Good touch passer when he has to be. Getting better at not forcing the ball. Good footwork, very nimble in the pocket and can get out of the way of the pass rush. Sees the field well. Goes through his progressions reasonably well.

Needs to improve: Accuracy not always consistent. Needs to develop a better long pass. Sometimes a bit quick to come off his first and second options. Makes good throws with game on the line. Needs to play better earlier in games.