Former Jets special teams coach Mike Westhoff wasn’t a big of fan of Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow during their time in New York.
Westhoff recently went on the NY Post’s “Gang’s All Here” podcast and was very critical of the way the Jets managed Sanchez’s contract and Tebow’s role within the offense. The Jets gave Sanchez a three-year extension worth $40.5 million in 2012, much to Westhoff’s dismay.
Sanchez’s numbers were underwhelming before he earned his contract extension. His completion percentage was 55.3 percent to go along with 55 touchdowns and 51 interceptions. The Jets, however, decided to pay the quarterback after two AFC championship losses — a decision that took assets away from Westhoff.
“Because we started this big contract, all of a sudden I’m going to lose guys and now I’m really upset,” Westhoff said on the podcast. “Mike Tannenbaum came by my office one day, I said, ‘Mike, why would you give Mark Sanchez this big new contract?’ He said, ‘Well that’s what a championship-game quarterback is paid.’ I said, ‘Well if he had anything to do with us getting there, I probably would agree with you. But for crying out loud, he had nothing to do with us getting there.’”
The Jets defense led the Jets to those two AFC Championships, not Sanchez, as Westhoff said. New York’s defense ranked No. 1 in 2009 and No. 3 in 2010.
As for Tebow, the Jets traded for him at about the same time they gave Sanchez the extension. Westhoff didn’t think the Jets used Tebow properly and that’s why his time as a Jet was so disappointing. Westhoff thought Tebow should have been used more in the Wildcat.
“Tony [Sparano] didn’t want to do it as an offensive coordinator,” Westhoff said. “Next thing you know, Tim had kind of bulked himself up. He got heavier. He can’t throw anyway, we all know that, so quit trying to make him a throwing quarterback, it’s not going to happen. It just didn’t happen. But he could run the football. As a Wildcat guy, I thought there’d be a place for him. It didn’t materialize.
All in all, Westhoff believed that Tebow did everything that was asked of him and the Jets simply failed him.
“If we had him in that role that he was really prepared for — I think that was really a misnomer on our part. We never even did give him a chance at all. … He kept his end of the bargain. I don’t think the New York Jets kept their end.”