During week 9, The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a devastating injury that likely had the sideline thinking "What Now?" Well, Mark Sanchez is what's now. In their game against the Houston Texans, Starting Quarterback Nick Foles suffered a broken collarbone, ultimately sidelining him for a good little while. After losing his place on the New York Jets starting line, and ending up in Philly, Sanchez has seen little to no playing time. With the injury of Nick Foles in week 9, Sanchez saw himself into the game, and completely astonished the crowd by throwing a huge pass to Jeremy Maclin which ended in a passing touchdown for Sanchez. For to rest of the game against Houston, Sanchez continued to march down the field with Eagles, and secure a 31-21 victory.
The performance that he put on wasn't exactly record breaking, or outstanding for that matter but under the pressure he managed to threw for 202 yards, 2 touchdowns, and unfortunately 2 interceptions in 3 quarters. With Nick Foles out for a good while if not the season, Sanchez will be labeled the starting quarterback, and be expected to keep the jets sitting at the top of their division. Can we say that this will harm the Eagles in a sense? Nick Foles was obviously the starting quarterback for a reason but he had a small problem with turnovers, apparently so maybe Mark Sanchez does as well, so it doesn't seem like there's a large drop-off between the quarterbacks... yet. Its hard to speculate as Sanchez has only seen the field twice so far, and has been known to really choke up in his seasons, and pull something off like a butt fumble.
The real question at large... is it worth extending Mark Sanchez's contract as a back up QB. Clearly he has plenty of experience in the NFL, and his pay grade isn't through the roof, so evidently I think it would be smart to keep him around as a back up. When situations like your starting quarterback suffering a broken collarbone arise, not to fear, you have the "Chez" fresh and ready on the bench, prepared to come in and win the game for you, or throw 3 interceptions and fumble the ball. That may be a bit of a stretch on the 3 INT's and fumble but i'll admit he is a small gamble. While he can produce touchdowns and smart decisions, he has a tendency to fail in key moments.
It wont be extremely long before Nick Foles will be back, at the latest next season although that may even be a long shot. The Eagles are a team building for success in the future, while there having a good season right now, its unlikely that there going to pull off play-off wins against the big boys of the league like Denver and New-England, so why fuss about what's happening now. No doubt you're still going to try and aim for some play-off victories and look forward to a trip to the super bowl, but realistically without Nick Foles it may be tough. While Sanchez isn't the most elite quarterback in the league (then again what back-up QB is elite) its still worth giving him a contract extension as he makes a reliable back up to finish a game off right, however I wouldn't put the season on his shoulders, he might just get overwhelmed, fall down and fumble.
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