





Four years ago, Mark Sanchez was the NFL's ultimate Jetsetter, beginning his draft day with a transcontinental trip from the Big Apple to Tinseltown and ending it with a triumphant return flight to his new professional promised land.

As the newly anointed franchise quarterback of the New York Jets, who had traded up to select him with the fifth overall pick of the 2009 draft, Sanchez was soaring toward instant stardom with a pair of AFC championship game appearances on the horizon.

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On Friday, in a metaphorical sense, Air Sanchize crash-landed, completing a two-year tailspin that reflects as poorly on the Jets as it does their embattled quarterback. Thirteen months after trading for Tim Tebow, the Jets drafted former West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith with the seventh pick of the second round, enhancing their reputation as an organization without a coherent flight plan.

As one highly regarded NFL coach put it so succinctly Friday night, "That place is a cluster[expletive]."

It was a lousy day for Sanchez — and an even worse one for the quarterback who succeeded him at USC, Matt Barkley. Heralded as a potential top-five pick heading into the 2012 draft, Barkley officially became the leading candidate to serve as the front man for a Don't Stay In School public-service announcement.

In a continuing freefall that's making the 2006 green-room squirm of another ex-Trojans passer, Matt Leinart, look like a mere step off the curb, Barkley went undrafted again on Friday, meaning he'll come off the board Saturday as no better than a fourth-round pick, and the presumptive backup status that comes with it.

Playing quarterback at SC used to be one of the sports world's glamour positions. Now it's akin to being the Spinal Tap drummer — and someone should have cued up "Big Bottom" at Barkley's draft gathering in Newport Beach, Calif., Friday, given how much unwanted couch time the kid has endured.

[Related: Is Matt Barkley a cautionary tale for Johnny Manziel?]

It wasn't supposed to play out this way. After the Buffalo Bills surprised the football world Thursday night by selecting Florida State's E.J. Manuel with the 16th overall selection, the remaining quartet of highly rated-quarterbacks (Smith, Barkley, Syracuse's Ryan Nassib and North Carolina State's Mike Glennon) seemed to be ripe for the picking early in Friday's second round, with quarterback-needy teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders in prime position.

Instead, each of those teams passed on passers. At some point, it became clear that all the talk about this being a weak draft class for quarterbacks had actually been understated, a rarity in pre-draft practice.

"To be honest, it's getting to the point where it's embarrassing," a talent evaluator for one of those quarterback-needy teams texted from the team's war room during Friday's third round. "Maybe they are just that average."

To paraphrase Jay-Z: Three rounds in, and that's a one [not-so-hot] quarterback every one round average — and that's so laaaaameeee.

If the draft class of '83 was the Year of the Quarterback, and last year's terrific trio (Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson) of rookie passers provided a titillating encore, this is shaping up as the Wait 'Till Next Year draft, with Barkley and Nassib as the most glaring casualties.

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