The New York Daily News was particularly savage, quoting nearly a dozen anonymous Jets to the effect that their quarterback had gotten "lazy," that he "just doesn't have the mental toughness to be great," and that they "see the organization babying him. They see him with a sense of entitlement. He's being given all this and hasn't done anything."

Yes, God forbid pro football franchises should pamper their quarterbacks.

I wonder if some of the players the Daily News spoke to—those brave, anonymous, 300-plus pounders—played on either the offensive or defensive lines that were responsible Sanchez's poor season? Or are there really football players who believe that a quarterback's performance isn't dependent on his team's pass blocking, the running game, and defensive play? Do the players who think Sanchez is coddled believe that he should block for himself, run the ball himself, and perhaps go out and contribute to the defense?

Let's look at the defense first. The Jets went from one of the best defenses in the league, giving up 304 points for sixth place in the NFL to one of the worst last year, allowing 363, 20th. Sanchez's run support sagged terribly; the Jets went from average 4.4 yards/rush in 2010 to 3.8 in 2011. As for the pass blocking, it was simply atrocious. It's hard to rate pass blocking because a team with a mobile QB will generally give up fewer sacks than a team with a passer who usually stays in the pocket, but in terms of sacks, hits, and "hurries," Sanchez was one of the most maligned QBs in football last year.

I wonder if the Daily News' anonymous sources included offensive tackles Wayne Hunter and D'Brickashaw Ferguson, who between them allowed 19 sacks, the league's worst performance by a pair of OTs.

It wasn't long till the Jets' management, one of the most consistently incompetent in the NFL, let slip that they might be interested in signing Peyton Manning, who almost certainly won't be back with the Colts this season. Again in the Daily News, Manish Mehta quoted a Jets source—anonymous of course—as saying, "C'mon, that's a no-brainer. If you have a chance to get a healthy 36-year old Peyton Manning and you don't do it, then you're stupid. If I could get a healthy 36-year old Peyton Manning, then hell yeah, I would trade Sanchez."

Whoever the guy is who said that, he got one thing right: The Jets' front office operates with no brains. You have a bad team riddled by dissension and, as back-up quarterback Greg McElroy was brave enough to point out, selfishness and a bad work ethic, and the cure for this is to bring in a quarterback past his physical peak who missed all of last season because of a neck injury? It's astonishing that anyone who knows anything about football would even consider such a scenario; it certainly seems astonishing that Manning himself would even consider putting on a New York green jersey (though to his credit, he hasn't yet shown much enthusiasm for the deal).