Rex Ryan Wanted Joe Flacco Last Year, Will Probably Want Mark Sanchez in '09

The plan was for Joe Flacco to spend his rookie season -- the first part of it, anyway -- on the sidelines. The Ravens' 2008 first-round pick came to Baltimore by way of Delaware, a Division I-AA school. And while he had the physical tools -- size, elusiveness, arguably the strongest arm in the league -- there's a huge difference between pummeling Monmouth on Saturdays and trying to slow down the Steelers on Monday night.

But training camp injuries to Kyle Boller and Troy Smith forced Flacco onto the field. In 2003, Brian Billick named then-rookie Boller the starter, and five years later, he was fighting for a roster spot (and Billick was out of a job).

There are any number of explanations for why rookie quarterbacks fall on their face. In Boller's case, it could have just as much to do with his mediocre college numbers (but he threw a football through the uprights ... from midfield ... on one knee!) as with Billick's decision to give him the gig from Jump St.

With recent history in mind, new head coach John Harbaugh was rightfully anxious. Flacco would exceed everyone's expectations, thanks to Cam Cameron's offensive philosophy of pounding the ball more than half the time to set up high-percentage pass plays, many of the play-action variety.

But one of the coaches on Harbaugh's staff was in favor of giving Flacco the job soon after he was drafted.

"When we had Flacco, I thought it was pretty obvious by the time we got out of [the organized team activities in the offseason] that by far and away he was our best quarterback," [Rex] Ryan said. "Now, it was also obvious to me that wasn't the direction Baltimore wanted to go. It just so happened we had no choice but to end up making that decision. Up until last year, there was a stigma that you don't win with a rookie quarterback. I think we proved that wrong."

Rex Ryan is now the Jets' head coach, and he also has a shiny, new franchise quarterback in Mark Sanchez. Unlike Matthew Stafford, taken first overall and going to the 0-16 Lions, Sanchez is now part of a Jets team that won nine times last year and, under Ryan, could have one of the best defenses in the AFC in '09.

And unlike Flacco, who used all his college eligibility, Sanchez declared for the draft after his junior season and 16 starts. But he's shown the ability to absorb information at staggering rate. Where most players benefit from four years of college, maybe Sanchez only requires three. And instead of needing 16 months to learn an NFL playbook, Sanchez needs just a few weeks.

Get a load of this one: Rather than go with a scaled-down version of the offense for his first practice, Sanchez gathered his offensive teammates the night before and installed 18 plays.

"There was some guy who we have who got the entire offense together and installed the base offense," Ryan said. "I guess you can figure out who that was. That's impressive. That's the kind of young man we brought in here."

It sounds like Sanchez is as equipped as any rookie to handle the day-to-day rigors of playing the NFL's most visible position in the world's most visible market. I suppose, there's a chance that Kellen Clemens wins the job out of training camp, but there's really no downside to going with Sanchez. He'll be surrounded by playmakers, and Ryan will make sure the defense does the heavy lifting.

In nine months we could look back on Sanchez's rookie season and declare it more impressive than Flacco's or Matt Ryan's. Partly because of Sanchez' skills, but mostly because of the situation he came into. This is also why Lions head coach Jim Schwartz should keep Stafford on the bench for a year. Maybe two.