Is USC QB Mark Sanchez Ready For The National Football League?

Published on January 15, 2009 by Seahawk Fanatic

Mark Sanchez, the star USC QB, declared for the NFL Draft today at 1 p.m. EST.

His decision was carefully evaluated by USC head coach Pete Carroll, as well as Sanchez himself.

Sanchez felt he made the right decision at the right time. He is set to graduate from USC, so he will receive a degree before entering the NFL. However, Carroll was not happy with Sanchez’s decision, and made this clear in a separate press conference.

“Mark is going against the grain, and he knows that,” Carroll said.

What are some things that may have influenced Sanchez’s decision?

First, highly touted QB Sam Bradford decided not to come out for the 2009 NFL Draft, despite being one of the top two quarterbacks in the draft class. With Bradford electing to stay at Oklahoma, Sanchez may believe that he has a chance to go first overall to a team in need of a quarterback—the Detroit Lions.

Sanchez had a very productive year in the competitive Pac-10 Conference, and he may have felt that he had little left to prove at the collegiate level. The surprising thing—USC has nine offensive starters returning. Sanchez would have had the chance to work with a great offense to improve his passing mechanics and decision making skills.

While Sanchez has made his official decision, I have to side with Carroll. Sanchez does not seem like a “polished” product—not close to a sure thing. With the fairly high rate of quarterback busts, Sanchez could be right in line to struggle initially in the National Football League. Whether he can catch on quickly, or ever learn the position effectively—it is yet to be seen.

Seahawks 12th Man Army has now gone mobile! Go to http://www.noticeorange.com/r/Seahawks12thManArmy to get an app for your phone. It's free and it has alerts so that you'll know whenever Seahawks 12th Man Army has anything new. What could be better?

Tags: 2009 nfl draft prospects, coach pete carroll, Collegiate Level, Decision Making Skills, Detroit Lions, Draft, draft class, football, Going Against The Grain, head coach, Mark Sanchez, Mechanics, National Football League, nfl draft, NFL FOOTBALL, NFL News, Offensive Starters, pac 10 conference, Pete Carroll, Qb Mark, quarterback busts, right decision, Right Time, Sure Thing, usc, Usc Qb

Fair Use Notice This website may at times present copyrighted material, the use of which might not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understandings of democratic, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. The author believes that this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U. S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles published on this website are distributed without profit for research and informational purposes. In most instances a link is placed to originator of Article and it is never expressly mentioned as written by, we use published by certain entities who write or publish for this said Blog..