Kubiak lays out Sanchez' path to the starting job

Eleven days ago, when the Denver Broncos made a move to bring in former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez, many Broncos fans and followers of the league scratched their heads. The butt-fumble guy was going to lead the Broncos in their title defense?

Of course, John Elway repeatedly saying it was just “the first step” in rebuilding at the quarterback position did well to quell the meltdown in Broncos Country. But as time passes and Denver doesn’t make a subsequent move at quarterback, it seems more and more likely that the draft will be the second step in the process. If that’s the case, the likelihood of Sanchez, the veteran, being the starter goes up significantly.

On Tuesday, at the NFL annual meetings, Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak was asked if he would be comfortable with Sanchez as his starting QB.

“I think he is going to have to make us comfortable,” he explained. “He is going to have to come in and do his job. Mark hasn’t asked for anything. He just wants an opportunity to compete. That’s what he said from day one and we can give him a tremendous opportunity to do that right now. I think he’s just very excited at this stage of his career. He’s had some big opportunities, he’s been on some big stages and he’s got an excellent chance to get back on one again. I think that’s what he’s excited about and I think that’s also something that intrigues us about how willing he is to get going here and be a part of our football team.”

Unlike many quarterbacks going from team to team, Sanchez won’t have a large learning curve when it comes to running the Broncos system.

“I think it will be quick. At S.C. (Southern California), his verbiage was our verbiage [with] the guys he came up under,” Kubiak told. “He’s been in the West Coast system or the West Coast verbiage for periods of his career. Even in New York, when he was there with Rex [Ryan], they had some of our verbiage, the way we talk. I think we’re going to make up ground really, really quick. The fact that he is so eager, he can get a good head start on his own before we can get our hands on him in April. I think they ground will be made up pretty quick.”

That being said, Kubiak made it clear the quick learning curve wasn’t the main reason the Broncos pursued Sanchez.

“I think he just got on the radar because, obviously, we start looking at options out there and things that we might pursue and John [Elway] and I started talking about him,” he said. “We watched him play and he did a lot of good things. Like I said, he’s got some experience in this league, he moves around [well] and he throws the ball on the move really. So we started talking about it and John was able to make it happen. It was really just a matter of studying him and knowing him through the years.

“We studied Mark as a player just like we were studying anybody else,” the coach added. “We feel like he fits what we do and has a lot of good football ahead of him. I think knowing some of our system, playing in a lot of big games and having a lot of NFL starts, that’s something we do [look at].”

Here’s something to ponder: In the last two seasons, Mark Sanchez has played in 13 games, Brock Osweiler — you know, the guy many Broncos fans desperately wanted as their quarterback — has played in 12. In Sanchez’s 13 games, he’s thrown for 18 touchdowns while compiling an 86.6 QB rating. In Osweiler’s 12 games he’s thrown for 11 touchdowns, with that same QB rating. Mark Sanchez will be paid $4.5 Million this year, Brock Osweiler will make $12 Million this year and average $20 Million in the three years after that.

That’s not to say that Osweiler isn’t a young guy with room for improvement or that Sanchez hasn’t been largely disappointing since his back-to-back appearances in the AFC Championship with the Jets. But it does go to show you that perception is often driven by wins and losses and, as the Broncos defense taught us last year, wins and losses shouldn’t always be credited to the quarterback.

The fact of it is, the Broncos got a guy who has had some success and is capable of doing the things they like in a quarterback for a very cheap price. And, as far as his prospects as their starting quarterback, Denver is completely in show-me mode.

“He’s got to come in and compete and do the things that he’s capable of doing, and do them consistently,” Kubiak said. “I think that’s the big thing. We wouldn’t have [gone] and gotten Mark if we didn’t think he could run our offense and do those types of things, but I think it’s going to be up to him to prove that he is the guy or can be the guy.”