PHILADELPHIA — Jordan Matthews was drafted in May by the Philadelphia Eagles, who were eager to add him to their stable of dynamic offensive talent. Those first few days, Matthews met LeSean McCoy and Darren Sproles, Jeremy Maclin and Zach Ertz, but none of them had quite the effect on him that the team’s backup quarterback did.

“It was a welcome-to-the-N.F.L. moment,” said Matthews, a wide receiver out of Vanderbilt. “Because it was like, ‘Yo, it’s that guy.’ ”

That guy, Mark Sanchez, represents different things to different people, and Matthews chooses to remember him as the quarterback who began his career by guiding the Jets to two A.F.C. championship games. Call it a hunch, but far more people probably view Sanchez as the guy whose head collided with an offensive lineman’s posterior, producing a fumble that was returned for a New England touchdown on Thanksgiving night in 2012.

The third act of Sanchez’s football life began Sunday, when he replaced the injured Nick Foles and played the final three quarters of the Eagles’ 31-21 victory at Houston, firing two touchdown passes at the same stadium where he made his debut with the Jets five years ago.