Fifteen years ago this weekend, Mark Sanchez left Giants Stadium on top of the world. What a year he was having.
On New Year’s Day, as the star quarterback at USC, Sanchez had been the Rose Bowl MVP in a convincing defeat of Penn State.
In April, the New York Jets made him the No. 5 pick and the second quarterback drafted, behind only top selection Matthew Stafford.
By that summer, Sanchez had begun to understand how much Jets fans were investing in him, hoping/believing/wishing that he could become their forever quarterback.
“You’re supposed to be Joe Namath,” Sanchez said. “You’re supposed to save the franchise and you’re supposed to win the Super Bowl. At least one.”
And by the end of Week 3 of his rookie season? With the Jets defeating the Tennessee Titans to move to 3-0? Well, Sanchez admits his elation had skyrocketed.
“It’s just like, ‘This. Is. Awesome! I don’t know what everybody was talking about that the NFL is so hard,’ ” he said.
That would be heady stuff for just about anybody. But for a 22-year-old still crossing the bridge from college to the pros, that energy spike was pronounced.
“It wasn’t like I felt like I was on easy street,” Sanchez said. “We were working hard for that success and we were reaping the benefits of our preparation. But you’re saying to yourself, ‘Damn, I could get used to this.’ ”
As Sanchez soon would learn — and confirm repeatedly over his 10-year career — life comes at you fast in the NFL. Over and over and over again.
The lows can be twice as stressful as the highs are intoxicating. Thus, finding the proper perspective to process everything while developing the ability to continually return to center may be among the most important duties of the QB1 role.
“You have to learn that process,” Sanchez said, “and that approach.”
Sanchez will be back at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon as Fox’s color commentator for the Chicago Bears game against the Los Angeles Rams. And just as he did during the season opener three weeks ago, he will be able to offer some unique and incredibly valuable insight into the experience Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams is immersed in.
Like Williams, Sanchez was the star quarterback at USC.
Like Williams, he was a top-five pick in the NFL draft, joining a popular team in a massive media market.
Like Williams, Sanchez entered the league playing for a defensive-centric head coach with a strong unit on that side of the ball.
And like Williams now, Sanchez also once had his own locker stall inside Halas Hall — in 2017 after the Bears signed him to be, in his words, “a coach in cleats” as part of the rookie-season support structure the team set up for Mitch Trubisky.
Sanchez knows the demands of the job, the pressures of this market, the speed of the NFL roller coaster. He understands the Caleb Williams Experience has only just begun in Chicago but recognizes why such significant intrigue already has exploded.
“There’s a fascinating growth process starting here,” Sanchez said just before the season began. “It’s fun to watch. It’s easy to criticize. But he’ll have his work cut out for him.
“I know Caleb has the talent for sure. He has the makeup and the demeanor to handle it all. Now so much of it is about what falls into place for him and what doesn’t.”
Reality checks
Three games into his career, Williams is in a bit of a different place than Sanchez was at the same point, fighting to steer the Bears back onto the road during this patience-testing two-game skid.
But Sanchez can empathize, understanding the citywide anxiety surrounding Williams in Chicago not to mention the amplified noise that comes with it.
After his 3-0 start to the 2009 season, Sanchez and the Jets dropped six of their next seven games. Suddenly, the next Joe Namath had become the next Joe Blow.
“That was probably the lowest I ever felt as a player,” Sanchez said. “Just dealing with that and listening to the noise. You’re supposed to be the savior of the franchise. Everything goes well from the jump. Then adversity hits and it almost felt like everybody (in New York) was bottling up all their negativity.
“As soon as you make that one fatal throw, that one ‘Oh, man!’ turnover, have that one drive where you don’t execute properly to win, then all of a sudden it all comes out.”
Such reality checks can be jarring.
“You go from, ‘Whoa. I thought we were all doing just fine. Now, after one mistake? One loss? Jeez, guys,’ ” he said. “That’s heavy. And where’s the adversity in your life previously that can match that, that you had to fight through? … I was learning how to deal with all that really for the first time.”
Sanchez did so successfully in 2009, helping the Jets reach the playoffs and advance to the AFC championship game. And that’s part of the advice he wants to pay forward to Williams.
Understand, kid, adversity in the NFL is a given.
Now it’s about sharpening the ability to refocus while having the proper support structure to rebound quickly.
‘Take a breath’
If Sanchez had one wish he could apply to his career retroactively, it would be having the opportunity to be a color commentator before he ever took an NFL snap. There’s just something so serene about experiencing a game from way up inside the booth.
“As an outsider, when you’re not looking through a face mask, getting a call in your helmet and going to operate with big dudes coming to take your head off, the game is so quiet and everything seems so obvious,” Sanchez said. “You’re backed up at your own 10 yard line, you just committed a penalty, it’s third-and-20. The chances of you getting a first down are pretty damn low. And the chances of you giving the other team an absolute gift where now they can score almost immediately are pretty high.
“In those scenarios, as a rookie and being highly competitive and feeling all that pressure, you’re thinking, ‘I’ve got to throw the ball 21 yards down the field to get a first down.’ When in reality that’s the dumbest thing you can do. That ball’s in the air a long time. These defenders are really good. And you’re going to look like an idiot real fast. I lived that. I’ve done that. Just, ‘Damn, I should have known better.’ ”
Yet arguably the best way to know better is to learn through experience, to grow through failure. That’s a process Williams is in the early stages of with the Bears. And, per Sanchez, one of the greatest tests he must pass during his rookie year is sharpening his forward-looking mindset with the ability to stay present.
“How quickly can you discover that ‘Now what?’ mentality?” Sanchez said. “How quickly can you compartmentalize, turn the page and move on with the last play not affecting your next play? That’s hard after scoring a touchdown. And it’s hard after throwing an interception. They’re both hard.”
As a rookie, Sanchez had fellow quarterbacks Mark Brunell and Kevin O’Connell to help him get back to center. Day after day, week after week, month after month.
“They could always get me back to where I needed to be to operate,” Sanchez said. “They had their own way of doing it. And you start to learn from those experiences of being coached how to get back to battle station mode. Take a breath. Here we go. Now get back to your groove.”
A delicate balance
Williams’ second interception Sunday in Indianapolis was a case study in the tightrope the Bears are trying to traverse within a developmental season for the quarterback that also includes lofty goals for the team.
With Rome Odunze one-on-one to the outside and Colts safety Nick Cross turning his back in coverage, Williams made an understandable choice to give his guy a chance to make a contested catch, a calculated gamble that registered as aggressive but far from reckless.
But Cross made a good enough play to disrupt Odunze, and the resulting ricochet turned into a Jaylon Jones interception along the sideline. It was, at once, a valuable learning experience for a rookie quarterback as well as a costly turnover in what turned out to be a five-point loss.
Still, that’s part of the juggling act the Bears signed up for when they added Williams to a playoff-caliber roster and dropped the rookie quarterback into a season that carries at least some “win or else” pressure.
Many of Williams’ mistakes will have significant short-term consequences even if they also include long-term benefits that prove difficult to see. To that end, Sanchez can recognize how the Bears’ push to make the playoffs this season may create at least some tug-of-war tension with the organization’s ultimate desire to win consistently for a long time.
“How do you balance the development of your quarterback with the win-now mentality?” Sanchez said. “We went through that in New York. Do you just put the handcuffs on Caleb to win games now to where you potentially stunt his growth but you win a bunch of games right now? I mean, that’s hard. The point is to win games. Yet to win games consistently, you do also have to develop talent — if you want to sustain that success over a long period of time.”
‘This stuff takes time’
Three games into the season, the Bears have seemingly allowed Williams to spread his wings with few limitations on what they’ve asked him to do. But who knows if they eventually might reach a crossroads in their season.
“It’s at those intersections where some of those calls become the toughest to make,” Sanchez said. “If this year is ultimately supposed to be about Caleb’s development, but late in the year you’re fighting for a playoff spot and he’s being careless with the football, now maybe you consider knocking his pass attempts down. Now, though, suddenly you’ve also delayed his development a bit.”
Then what?
“Everybody in the Chicago Bears organization,” Sanchez said, “has to see this thing through Caleb’s eyes.”
Every day of every week. And with a clear-cut, shared understanding of where the organization’s bull’s-eye lies.
Sanchez remains enamored with Williams’ potential, appreciating his on-the-move talent and special ability to create. Like so many others, Sanchez also admires how calm and confident Williams seems to be in every setting and in a manner that seems galvanizing. That gift should not go underappreciated.
“He just has such an easygoing and calming presence,” Sanchez said. “And it is infectious. It’s palpable. Because you’re kind of looking around like, ‘Man, aren’t we all supposed to be nervous here?’”
Williams, though, doesn’t appear to be, confident he is equipped to handle every aspect of this demanding experience.
The next few pages of his story will be written Sunday at Soldier Field — with the Bears facing the Rams and Sanchez aiding the TV broadcast. Sanchez will know better that anyone what he’s seeing and what Williams is experiencing. Yet he also understands the hourglass that accompanies the young quarterback’s growth process.
That, too, affects the dynamic of this whole thing.
“Not everything in this world — especially playing the position of quarterback — is ‘Instant Grits,’ ” Sanchez said. “This stuff takes time. It takes a lot of time, a lot of reps and a lot of patience.”
There’s a ‘but’ coming …
“But,” Sanchez said, “unfortunately for young star quarterbacks like Caleb, people don’t have a lot of patience. So you have to deal with that.”
Two seasons after helping the Jets to their second consecutive AFC championship game appearance in his second season, Sanchez was benched late in 2012 and replaced by Greg McElroy. He missed the entire next season with a shoulder injury and was gone from New York the following spring as a free agent who landed in Philadelphia in a QB2 role.
Life comes at you fast in the NFL.
