Tag: Mark Sanchez

Panthers QB Andy Dalton’s 2nd INT in Week 6 came with some hilariously bad timing

Panthers QB Andy Dalton didn’t do Mark Sanchez and the FOX broadcast booth any favors with his second interception in Week 6.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Andy Dalton had not one, but two unfortunately-timed interceptions in yesterday’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

The first was much more consequential to the football game itself, as Dalton all but crushed his team’s hopes at a comeback early in the fourth quarter. With the Panthers down 28-20 from the Falcons’ 28-yard line, the 14th-year veteran tried to squeeze a second-down pass in to tight end Ian Thomas—only to be picked off by cornerback A.J. Terrell.

The second was actually quite funny.

With the outcome pretty much wrapped up at the 1:55 mark of the fourth quarter, FOX play-by-play commentator Chris Myers asked analyst Mark Sanchez for his thoughts on the future of benched second-year quarterback Bryce Young. And right when Sanchez sets up a compliment for Dalton, the 36-year-old gets jumped for his second turnover . . .

Dalton finished the 38-20 defeat with 221 passing yards, two touchdowns and the pair of picks.

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Former USC QB Mark Sanchez will call Caleb Williams’ NFL debut

Mark Sanchez will be in the network TV booth for Caleb Williams’ first NFL regular season game. Pretty cool.

This is a neat story uniting USC quarterbacks. Former Southern California quarterback Mark Sanchez will be in the booth as a TV commentator for his fellow Trojan brother’s historic NFL debut. Sanchez will call Caleb Williams’ first career NFL regular-season start for the Chicago Bears on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

In his two years at USC, Williams completed 67.5 percent of his passes for 8,170 yards and 72 touchdowns to go along with 524 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns on the ground. The former 5-star recruit earned Pac-12 Offensive Play of the Year and All-American honors in 2022 en route to a Heisman Trophy. He had an 18-8 record as a starter. Williams and Riley first teamed up at Oklahoma, as Williams originally signed with the Sooners in 2021 before following Riley to Los Angeles.

Sanchez was also a great star at USC, completing 64.3 percent of his passes for 3,965 yards and 45 total touchdowns in three years. The former Mission Viejo product was selected with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft and helped lead the New York Jets to consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances.

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Mark Sanchez predicts an MVP caliber season for Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers

Mark Sanchez makes a big projection for Aaron Rodgers.

Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez believes that Aaron Rodgers is going to put up some impressive numbers this year for the New York Jets. These numbers would be very reminiscent of Rodgers’ recent MVP seasons.

Once hailed as ‘The Sanchise,’ Sanchez is a former first-round pick of the Jets. He led New York to consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances in his first two seasons in the league.

He sees Rodgers, who missed nearly the entirety of last season with an Achilles injury, as on the verge of bouncing back to the form he showed in 2020 and 2021 when he was the league’s MVP.

On Tuesday, Sanchez told Colin Cowherd on FS1 that he sees a big season for Rodgers. He didn’t predict an MVP season for Rodgers, but the numbers he talked about would put the Jets quarterback in the discussion for the league’s top individual honors.

“I think he’s easily 4000 yards – around there. I think he’s easily right around 30 touchdowns, less than 10 picks,” Sanchez told Cowherd on FS1.

Cowherd then said “31 TDs, nine picks” which got Sanchez rolling.

“Like, that would be more than enough, and I think he can easily surpass that in a year where they catch fire,” Sanchez said.

“Like, that’s a team that can win the division, you know what I mean? And we have two really good teams never won our division. The vivision went through Foxboro, (Tom) Brady and (Bill) Belichick. And we were 9-2 at one point playing them on Monday night, and just got absolutely blown out of the water.

“This team is going to be good.”

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In 2021, Rodgers threw for 4,115 yards with 37 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Tom Brady won’t make his broadcasting debut with Saints preseason game

Tom Brady won’t make his broadcasting debut with a Saints preseason game. He’s always looked a little rattled by the black and gold:

Is Tom Brady any good at broadcasting? That’s what we’re about to find out. FOX Sports paid handsomely to get the retired quarterback into the booth with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, and his first opportunity to try out this new role comes on Aug. 18 when the New Orleans Saints visit the San Francisco 49ers for a nationally-broadcast preseason game.

But Brady won’t be on the call, per former USA Today columnist Rudy Martzke. FOX Sports wants to wait and introduce him in Week 1’s regular season game between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns, so instead it’ll be Adam Amin and Mark Sanchez on the mic for the Saints-49ers exhibition game.

It makes sense if Brady is uncomfortable seeing the Saints again so soon. They beat him more often and more handily than any other opponent in his storied NFL career, and they ran him out of the NFC South and into retirement. Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers were swept twice in the 2020 and 2021 regular seasons, and no team posted a higher career points differential against him than the Saints.

Brady will have to see them again in his new capacity at some point — their late-afternoon matchups on FOX with the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams in Weeks 9 and 13 stand out — but it won’t be this soon. And we’re imagining he’s at least a little grateful for that.

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Former USC QB Mark Sanchez evaluates Caleb Williams, Drake Maye … and Sam Darnold

Mark Sanchez recently discussed Sam Darnold and what the future holds for him in Minnesota.

Mark Sanchez chatted with Colin Cowherd about Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Sam Darnold. We have talked a lot about Caleb. We have talked a little about Drake Maye. Let’s pull apart the Sam Darnold piece of Sanchez’s conversation.

Darnold has to know that the Vikings are going to draft a young quarterback. What will be interesting is if the Vikings trade into the top three for that quarterback, try to get a quarterback in the top 15, or just settle on the No. 23 pick they currently have.

Vikings Wire has more:

“The Minnesota Vikings are going to be trading up a lot in mock drafts over the next five weeks. This number was bound to spike up after they acquired the 23rd overall pick from the Houston Texans.

“NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah got the memo and provided some chaos in his latest mock draft. He had the Vikings trading up for the fourth overall pick with the Houston Texans to select Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy.”

There is a wide range of opinion on McCarthy. Some think he’s a legitimate top-tier quarterback, while others think he is third-round material. Let’s play along with the hypothetical. If the Vikings do take McCarthy, Darnold would have to love his chances of being the Day 1 starter in 2024 for Minnesota. If the Vikings draft Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye, it might be a different story.

Here’s Mark Sanchez on Darnold, Caleb Williams, and Drake Maye:

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Mark Sanchez talks about why Caleb Williams will translate in the NFL

Mark Sanchez evaluates Caleb Williams as an NFL prospect.

What does Mark Sanchez think about Caleb Williams? One wonders.

Mark Sanchez had a respectable NFL career, not attaining stardom but reaching two AFC Championship Games with the New York Jets. He got close to the Super Bowl twice and made winning plays in playoff games. He is now an NFL game analyst for Fox Sports. He is an authoritative, knowledgeable voice on NFL quarterbacks and the larger matter of what it takes to succeed in the NFL at the most important position on the field.

Sanchez discussed Patrick Mahomes a month ago.

Mark Sanchez was the quarterback on the last great Pete Carroll USC team. Sanchez led the Trojans to the 2009 Rose Bowl championship over Joe Paterno and Penn State. USC finished the season with only one loss. If the four-team College Football Playoff had existed in 2008, USC stood a very good chance of getting in. The playoff not existing during the Pete Carroll era creates one of the great what-ifs of college football — and USC — history.

Here’s Mark Sanchez on Caleb Williams and the NFL:

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Former USC QB, current NFL television analyst Mark Sanchez discusses Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ dynasty

Former USC QB Mark Sanchez weighs in on Patrick Mahomes.

Former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, a Pac-10 and Rose Bowl champion, reached the AFC Championship Game in an NFL playing career which, though not spectacular, was not a bust either. Sanchez has tasted the highest levels of competition in both college and the pros. He carved out a respectable career and is now an NFL game analyst for Fox Sports on Sundays. Sanchez is one of a select few people who has a color commentator role on national television for NFL Sunday games. He is doing quite well in his post-playing career. Sanchez discussed the Kansas City Chiefs’ win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, with Patrick Mahomes featuring prominently in his comments.

Mahomes is the main engine behind the Chiefs’ dynastic rise, with back-to-back Super Bowl victories for the first time in the NFL since the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick Patriots in the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The Chiefs, who have made four of the past five Super Bowls and are 3-1 in those four Supes, have won three of the last five NFL championships and just completed a run in which they beat the top two seeds in the AFC on the road with Rashee Rice as their No. 1 wide receiver. If they could do that, and if they can find an elite receiver this year, their dynasty — with Mahomes at the wheel — is not likely to end anytime soon.

Here’s more from USC’s Mark Sanchez:

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Looking back at the 16 quarterbacks in 15 years since Brett Favre in 2008

The Jets sure have quite the gallery of starting quarterbacks in recent memory. Tim Boyle will be the 16th different starter in the past 15 years.

The one thing all NFL franchises want is a long-term quarterback. Someone that they know will lead their team for at least 10-12 years, if not longer. Every team wants a Patrick Mahomes or a Peyton Manning or a Tom Brady. Unfortunately for the Jets, they haven’t exactly struck gold in that department in recent years.

With the Jets deciding to start Tim Boyle at quarterback in place of Zach Wilson, the Jets are now starting their 16th different quarterback since they went pushed their chips for Brett Favre in 2008. It’s not exactly a “Who’s who” list but it’s certainly a list alright. Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane for each quarterback that has started or will start, in the case of Boyle, a game for the Jets in the past 15 years.

Former Trojan Mark Sanchez discusses the problems with USC’s defense

Mark Sanchez has a lot to say.

Against Utah, Alex Grinch didn’t notice that the Utes had a wheel route in their playbook. Against Washington, the USC defense allowed well over 200 rushing yards, most of them before contact. Against Cal on October 28, USC’s defense wasn’t ready to play.

One week after another, humiliations and embarrassments piled up for Alex Grinch.

After the Cal game, we noted that “Grinch has to be gone as USC defensive coordinator after the Trojan defense allowed 28 points in the first 21 minutes of Saturday’s game against the California Golden Bears in Berkeley. Soft. Unprepared. Powerless. Outclassed. These and similar words properly apply to a USC defense that was shredded by Cal’s star running back, Jaydn Ott, and backup quarterback Fernando Mendoza.”

Just what went wrong with the USC defense? Just what happened which made the firing of Alex Grinch inevitable and, ultimately, the only choice for Lincoln Riley? People want answers. Former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, now a television analyst, offered commentary and analysis:

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