Take Your Pick; Josh Freeman or Mark Sanchez?

Take your pick; Josh Freeman or Mark Sanchez? Who would you rather have?

If your a Bucs fan, you’re choice is clear, Josh Freeman, and if your a Jets fan, their answer would probably be Sanchez. Or would it?

Ever since Jets head coach, Rex Ryan came out about the reason why he chose Sanchez over Freeman in the 2009 draft, Jets and Buccaneer fans around the world have been arguing over who is the better quarterback between the two.

Lets take a look at Ryan’s reason; In his book “Play Like You Mean It”, Ryan states that the reason he took Sanchez over Freeman was because 24 players came to catch balls from Sanchez at USC when the Jets worked him out, while only 2 players came when the Jets worked Freeman out at Kansas State.

The reason behind Ryan’s decision is as clear as his prediction of winning the Super Bowl last year; it wasn’t very valid.

Really though, its clear that Ryan believed that Sanchez was respected more than Freeman. I would have to say that hes quite wrong about that. While Sanchez does seem to get a lot of respect from his team mates, to believe that Sanchez is that much more respected than Freeman is ridiculous.

Freeman is the clear cut leader of the Buccaneers. Everyone on the team and throughout the Buccaneer organization knows that its all about Josh Freeman and that if the team is going to go to the Super Bowl and win, Freeman is going to have to be the vocal point.

Ever since being drafted with the 17th pick in the 2009 draft, Freeman has shown maturity and leadership beyond his years and has established himself as the face of the Buccaneer franchise. While Sanchez has been able to win a couple of playoff games with the Jets, I really don’t see that as a valid measuring stick.

Jets fans will say that they would rather have Sanchez because he has won been in the playoffs and done well, one cant forget the team hes playing for has one of the best rushing attacks and defenses in the NFL and that at one point in the 2010 season, Ryan was talking about benching him and I wonder if the Jets had Freeman, if they would of already won a Super Bowl and be saying that they have the next Joe Namath.

Sanchez did a great job of responding, helping his team push past the Colts, Patriots in the play offs, but fell short against the Steelers. Dont get me wrong, defeating Peyton Manning and Tom Brady lead teams is nothing to rub your nose at, but at the same time, look at the team hes on.

The Jets are filled with talent such as; C Nick Mangold, OT D’Brickashaw Ferguson, RB, Ladainian Tomlinson, RB Shonn Greene, LB Bart Scott, CB Darrelle Revis, and WR Braylon Edwards. All of these players are Pro Bowlers (except for Greene), and have been in position to win a Super Bowl before Sanchez even arrived, so putting any quarterback in that type of environment, you would expect positive results because of the talent and veteran leadership around him.

Sanchez’s position reminds me of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger; Drafted by a Super Bowl winning team and asked just to take care of the ball while everyone else does their job. Whats the point of trading up from 17th in the draft to 6th if your just going to select a game manager?  The diffence is that Big Ben fell to the Steelers and didnt have to give up anything to get their guy while the Jets moved up 11 spots to select Sanchez.

Now, Lets take a look at the situation Freeman came into. After losing the final four games of the 2008 season and missing the playoffs, Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen were let go along with veteran players like Cato June, Michael Pittman, Ike Hilliard, and fan favorite Derrick Brooks. There was no question that it was time to move on, but because the drafting by Allen and Gruden the past 5 years had been inconsistent, a complete overhaul was needed and it became clear that the roster was filled with holes on both sides of the football.

Freeman came to a team that had almost no veteran leadership, besides Ronde Barber, and most glaring of all, no real talent to work with. Outside of TE Kellen Winslow, no Buccaneer player posed a threat to opposing defenses. With the team starting out 0-9 in 2009, and the possibility of a 2nd defeated season starting to surface, the Buccaneers decided it was time to turn to there future quarterback and they never looked back.

No Buccaneer fan will forget Freeman’s first game against the Green Bay Packers. The way he was able to bring the Bucs back the way he did was masterful. On that day, new life was breathed into the Bucs and although they only won 3 games and finished 3-13, the Bucs had finally found their signal caller.

It became clearer that Freeman was going to be special by the way he approached the off season going into the 2010 season. Pretty much living at One Buc Place, Freeman worked on many of his weaknesses and in 2010, turned in the best season a Buccaneer quarterback has every had, throwing 25 tds to only 6 picks and posting a quarterback rating of 95.9, finishing 6th among quarterbacks in the NFL.

The Bucs went 10-6 in 2010, missing the playoffs by a slim margin, but whats most impressive about the run is that the defense still wasn’t all that great,finishing 28th in rushing defense. Freeman also lead the Bucs back several times last season, was the vocal point of the team all season, and made play after play, making it a point to let everyone know that he is, not maybe, going to be special.

Because of the different situations that Freeman and Sanchez were drafted into, its hard to say that I would take Sanchez over Freeman simply because hes done well in the playoffs. Sanchez was drafted to a Super Bowl contending team while Freeman was drafted by a team that was in the rebuilding stages.

Both quarterbacks are good and I believe they both will have good careers, but in time, Freeman will separate himself from Sanchez. Jets fans will ride the playoff argument all day long, but the fact is that Freeman is a game changer and can beat you in so many ways while in my opinion, Sanchez is a product of having a great defense and rushing game, and I’m not so sure he can carry a team week to week like Freeman can.

I hope for the best for each quarterback, but Im taking Freeman. Its only a matter of time before Freeman and the Bucs are in the play offs. Its taking the Bucs longer because they had to rebuild from the bottom up, and really shouldn’t be ready to win now, but because of the rapid development of Freeman, they are, the defense just has to catch up where as with the Jets, they have been ready to win for some time, while Sanchez has to catch up.