Mark Sanchez KNOWS THE OFFENSE
By 
Watching the Washington We’re OK With Serial Domestic Abusers But Not Peaceful Protestors collapse has been pleasurable in itself, but as a bonus is has offered a dispositive refutation of the pathetic attempts to develop football-related pretexts for the ongoing blackballing of Colin Kaepernick. Number one is “Kaepernick doesn’t KNOW THE OFFENSE.” Leaving aside the obvious tautology — the only way you can learn the offense is for someone to sign you, and QBs with no history with a particular system as signed all the time — there’s the additional problem that KNOWING THE SYSTEM has little value if you are unable to play football at an NFL level:
Gruden also explained why he didn’t want to bring in Colin Kaepernick to fill the vacant backup spot. The coach swore it had nothing to do with Kaepernick’s 2016 protests for social justice. It was, in Gruden’s words, all about “football, strictly football.” You see, Kaepernick just didn’t have the time or ability to learn Washington’s finely tuned offense. Getting acquainted would have been “very difficult,” and so Washington opted to sign someone with a “a similar skill set” to Sanchez: Josh Johnson, a quarterback who hadn’t thrown a pass in an NFL game since 2011.
Sanchez got the start on Sunday against the New York Giants and showed the world what an experienced, pro-style technician can do with an offense tailored to his various strengths. Things didn’t get off to a blistering start, however, and Sanchez threw a pick-six from his own end zone in the first quarter.
Maybe he just needed to shake off some rust? You can’t floor a Ferrari if it’s been idle for a week, and you can’t expect a pro-style guru like Mark Sanchez to come out of the garage firing on all cylinders. He just needed some time, as evidenced by his next interception, which came in the second quarter.
Gruden pulled the plug on his offensive maestro in the middle of the third quarter. At that point, Washington was losing 40-0 and Sanchez had completed six of his 14 pass attempts for 38 yards and zero touchdowns.
Kaepernick hell, if the Sanchize gets more starts Nathan Peterman might have a viable collusion suit. Anyway, as we’ve discussed the second pretext offered by apologists is to claim that a team can’t possibly sign Kaepernick because he’s rusty. Sanchez was relieved by…Josh Johnson, a 32-year-old who has started 5 NFL games, one since 2010, going 0-5, and was signed 4 days before the game. Rustier than a ’72 Chevy Nova that’s been stored under a waterfall, doesn’t KNOW THE OFFENSE, and can’t play — the blackball trifecta! (And, no, the fact that he looked OK in the garbageist of garbage time doesn’t mean anything.) There is one reason, and one reason only, that a team was still in playoff contention rolled out these stiffs when a healthy QB a few years away from being one play away from a Super Bowl was sitting out there unsigned:
Of course, the decision to pass on Kaepernick was never really about scheme or talent. It was always about his protest of racial inequality during the national anthem. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder donated $1 million to the campaign of a president who says all protesting players should lose their jobs and boldly claimed that “96%” of NFL fans are for players standing. I’m not sure you can get 96% of football fans to agree on anything. Certainly not an issue as divisive as the anthem one.
In other news, this really has been a rough week for Trump:
saving this highlight for when the patriots inevitably roll to the super bowl and I need mental nourishment, like a squirrel hoarding acorns in the winter https://t.co/bIcOYytpLC
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) December 9, 2018
While it was a miracle play, it has major playoff implications. And putting a TE in at safety even though the opposing team was snapping from its own 31 is the kind of sloppiness Belichick normally benefits from. Even the greatest eventually slip a little, and this reminds me of Belichick doing some strange stuff to fumble away home field advantage in 2015. Not that New England can’t beat them anyway, but you have to like KC’s chances a lot better at Arrowhead if it comes to that.