Among the many gut-wrenching decisions to be found on fantasy football draft day, perhaps the one that could prove the most difficult is choosing between New York Jets quarterbacks Mark Sanchez and Geno Smith. In a perfect world, you would already have your QB spots filled before any thought of these players have crossed your mind but for this scenario, we will pretend you don’t.
So which of these two would be the smarter choice if you had to choose in a deep league?
Well, conventional wisdom points to the Jets starting Sanchez and easing Smith into a role either later in the season or next year. The recent play of Sanchez, however, is the strongest argument for New York not to follow this route.
The whole reason the Jets drafted Smith in the first place is because Sanchez had such a terrible 2012 campaign. Statistically, Sanchez, who was drafted in 2009, had his worst season since his rookie year. Playing in 15 games, Sanchez passed for 2,883 yards, tossing 13 touchdowns to a combined 27 turnovers. Across the board, Sanchez dropped significantly in every category, but perhaps more importantly, he lost the trust and faith of both the locker room and the coaching staff.
Owed over $8 million dollars this season, the Jets couldn’t just cut the struggling Sanchez and trading him was out of the question. So, with one more season guaranteed, it has been widely assumed that with his experience, the starting job was his to lose.
Evidently, if early word from camp is any indication, Smith didn’t get the memo that he was the number two guy. When training cap opened, new Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg quizzed Smith on the new playbook and was highly impressed by how much the rookie retained during the layoff between mini-camps and now.
More impressively, however, Smith has displayed a much stronger arm than Sanchez in drills and while he hasn’t been perfect, he has shown enough progress that the starting spot by opening week is a possibility. Another edge in favor of Smith starting over Sanchez is that the Jets are looking to incorporate some read-option plays and Smith has demonstrated the quickness and fluidity to properly utilize those packages.
Ultimately, all signs are starting to clearly point to Smith being under center come opening snap of the 2013 season. This, plus his potential keeper value, make Smith the smarter choice out of the two quarterbacks. This choice becomes even easier since there is no way that you are looking at any Jets QB to fill a starting spot.
Even with Smith more than likely getting the starting nod, he isn’t worth more than a reserve spot until he proves otherwise.
James LeBeau is a contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @Jlebeau76 or subscribe on Facebook.com/CraveOnlineSports.
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