It was a dream come true for Mark Sanchez when he heard in March that he was traded to the Denver Broncos for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft. This gave him the opportunity to revive his career by playing for the Super Bowl champions.
Sanchez, knowing that this may be his last shot in trying to restore his career as a starting quarterback, is now competing against second-year passer Trevor Siemian and 2016 first-round-pick Paxton Lynch to prove that he should be the one to hold the title.
“This is like a gift-wrapped opportunity from heaven,” Sanchez said on NFL.com. ”As soon as it arrived, I told myself, ‘Take advantage of things. Assert yourself. Be the guy you know you can be. Win the job. And then go win some games, which is the most important thing of all.’”
When first arriving, teammates viewed him as an immediate leader. With the experience that Sanchez has, his teammates knew that he could give them an advantage on the field.
“The leadership Mark brings is so important,” running back C.J. Anderson said. “He’s been there, and he can rally us around him. And then there’s the experience. This is not a guy whose head is swimming out there. The game has slowed down for him.
“What people don’t understand is that if we do our jobs, his job can be that much easier. We understand that we don’t have an Andrew Luck or a Ben Roethlisberger, a guy who the ball has to be in his hands 50 times a game — but there are other ways to win. We can win as a team, and we’re gonna take care of business in all three phases to make the quarterback’s life that much better.”
However, Sanchez has had to deal with a lot of criticism from the the outside. There is this uncertainty that with Sanchez on the team, the Broncos might not have the ability to compete for another title. John Elway, clearly, disagrees.
“I don’t think there’s much respect out there,” Denver general manager John Elway said. “And a lot of that is (because) when you look at the quarterback position, with the guys that we have, they don’t have a lot of (outside) respect, obviously.
Elway is remains optimistic and sees Sanchez as a quarterback who can lead the Broncos back to the promised land.
“We think a lot more of Mark Sanchez than maybe the public does,” Elway said. “That’s from watching tape on him, and really watching him in Philly last year, and also since he’s been here. If you’re in New York, they have a tendency to bring the attention to the negative, rather than the positive. And Mark kind of got caught in that rut. We hope we’re right. The great thing about camp starting, finally, is we can stop talking about it and see who’s gonna come to the forefront.”
Even coach Gary Kubiak thinks highly of Sanchez, even if there’s set to be a fair competition at quarterback.
“Mark comes from a background with West Coast verbiage,” Kubiak said. “The day we (traded for) him we started talking plays, and we just kind of went from there. He’s done some really good things in this league. We’re gonna surround him with some really good players and give him a chance to succeed. Now, it’s up to him.”
Now all that Sanchez can do is to prove himself. He is doing everything he can to show his coaches and teammates that he is here for the long run.
“I basically devoted all my offseason energy to trying to master the system, getting to know my teammates and getting involved in the community,” Sanchez said. “I never want to be in a position 10 or 15 years down the line where I could look back and say, ‘Oh man, if I had just done a little more, I could have made it happen, especially not this opportunity — it’s a quarterback’s dream come true.”