Rex Ryan, Who Once Made Mark Sanchez a Captain, Says Seeing the 'C' on Bortles' Jersey Drives Him Crazy
By Jason Lisk
Rex Ryan was fired up about Blake Bortles’ performance this morning on Get Up. Bortles threw 61 times in a loss to Kansas City, throwing four interceptions, including bouncing one off his own lineman’s helmet in the red zone.
“This guy is a turnover machine,” said Ryan, also adding, “This guy’s holding that thing back. Every time I see that ‘C’ on the jersey it makes me crazy.”
Dan Orlovsky brought up a comparison to Mark Sanchez, to which Ryan responded that Mark Sanchez was better than Bortles.
It’s at this point that I need to clarify that such a claim is dubious. They are like mirror images of each other in the best case argument for Sanchez, though I’d probably take Bortles if I had to make that choice. Through age 26, Bortles has 98 touchdowns and 71 interceptions, while Mark Sanchez was at 68 touchdowns and 69 interceptions (and basically done as a starter).
As for Rex Ryan having a hard time stomaching making a questionable starter at quarterback as a team captain, I’ll point out that back in 2011, Ryan made Sanchez his offensive team captain.
“I see the way the guys are around him,” Ryan said. “This is really going to be his team. I’m not big on giving out those captain things, but we will put the ‘C’ on his jersey this year because he truly is our captain.”
It’s almost like he acted differently as a coach toward Mark Bortles, er Blake Sanchez, than what he is saying now.