Mark Sanchez May Have A Decent Market If The Jets Release Him

An unnamed coach of a “quarterback-needy team” mentioned during the Senior Bowl practices this week that his team has already discussed the idea of signing QB Mark Sanchez should the Jets release him in the coming weeks.

“We’d take Sanchez,” the coach said, via the New York Post. “He’d be the starter as soon as he walked in the door for us.”

Sanchez, 27, sat out the entire 2013 season after he suffered a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. It’s also worth mentioning that Sanchez has been a turnover machine in recent years, which includes 52 turnovers from 2011-12.

The Jets are unlikely to keep Sanchez just for the simple fact that he has a staggering $13.1 million salary-cap figure for 2014 season. New York stands to gain $8.3 million in cap space by releasing him, so unless they somehow convince him to take a drastic pay cut, it seems very likely that he will be a cap casualty soon enough.

This year’s quarterback market is pretty limited. Guys like Michael Vick, Josh McCown, Josh Freeman, Shaun Hill and Chad Henne make up the best available unrestricted free agent quarterbacks and there is a good chance that Matt Schaub could be joining them as well.

When you look at that group, it’s not hard to see why someone would consider taking a shot on Sanchez. After all, the Jets have had some disappointing offensive coordinators the past few years, so there is at least a remote a chance that a team could turn him around and get him to limit the mistakes.

Speculative options could include the Browns, Jaguars, Raiders, Texans and Vikings.

We’ll have more regarding Sanchez in the coming weeks.