Is Mark Sanchez Really a Good QB?

[erpowers]

I watched USC a few times during this season and I was not impressed with Mark Sanchez. However, it seems that a number of people at ESPN are really big on Sanchez. Am I wrong about Sanchez or is ESPN just really crazy about USC and its players?

[Onceuponalife]

1. You're wrong.

[petronius]

2. I think he's a good QB, but in the long run I think he'll be added to the long list

of QBs who were drafted higher than they deserve...

[Awsi Dooger]

3. Some tunnel vision

He'll lock onto a guy in the intermediate range and force line drives. That will probably surface early in his NFL career because he played so little in college, only one season and a few games as starter. Sanchez also has very little experience playing from behind and didn't always look great in that spot. He was poor in the 4th quarter at Oregon State after USC cut the lead to 21-14 in the 3rd.

It's very well established that the two criteria that project NFL success for a college QB are number of starts and completion percentage. The majority of the premium pick busts violate those two categories and the later round surprises had top numbers in them. That's one reason Pete Carroll properly doubted Sanchez' decision to turn pro, because he realized the number of starts was hardly ideal.

Sanchez was very highly regarded coming out of high school. So that could overcome his lack of collegiate starts, the raw ability that was evident early. The one thing you never want to do is draft a QB high if he was an early journeyman and never played much, then bloomed to great heights late in his college career.