FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Leave it to a couple of kids to make a bunch of New York Jets executives look smart.
No team orchestrated bigger deals in the early rounds of the 2009 draft than the Jets — decisions that nine months later have led to the team’s improbable postseason success.
The biggest gamble came early in the first round, when the Jets packaged picks and players to pull off a blockbuster trade to move up from No. 17 to No. 5 and snag Southern California quarterback Mark Sanchez.
The next day, the Jets pulled off another deal, swapping third-round picks with Detroit and sending two other 2009 picks to the Lions to take Iowa running back Shonn Greene at the start of the third round.
Sure, the Jets’ top two draft picks had their struggles at times in their rookie seasons. Sanchez had five multi-interception games. Greene had a major case of the fumbles, losing three in limited action in the middle of the season.
Yet now, as the Jets prepare for their first AFC championship game in more than a decade, these two rookies are being widely hailed for their heady and clutch play in the playoff run, proving that general manager Mike Tannenbaum’s bold draft-day decisions are paying off.
Sanchez, playing an admittedly conservative game, has thrown only one interception in his past four games, and Greene has rushed for 263 yards and two touchdowns in the Jets’ two playoff victories. Greene’s 53-yard touchdown run, in which he trampled San Diego safety Eric Weddle, gave the Jets a 10-point fourth-quarter lead in their divisional-round victory last week.
“I’m sure Mike Tannenbaum is kind of beating his chest a bit to see those guys and how well they’re performing,” veteran offensive tackle Damien Woody said. “They are key cogs for our team, not just this year, but moving forward into the future.”
It turns out that Sanchez and Greene are players the Broncos looked at in the weeks and days leading up to the draft.
General manager Brian Xanders and offensive coordinator Mike McCoy flew to California less than a week before the draft in April to hold a private workout with Sanchez, spurring rumors throughout the league that the Broncos would try to move up from their No. 12 spot to snag a quarterback to challenge Kyle Orton.
But when the first draft of the McDaniels era was over, the Broncos had made plenty of moves up and down the draft board, but none involving their two first-round picks. McDaniels and the Broncos’ personnel staff decided they were happy enough with Orton or Chris Simms as the team’s starter, and waited until the sixth round to draft quarterback Tom Brandstater.
Instead, the Broncos used their first pick to take Knowshon Moreno, who was widely rated as the top running back in the draft — a dazzling collegiate runner with good ball-catching skills who already was adept in pass protection.
Greene had impressive numbers in his junior year at Iowa — with at least 100 yards rushing in every game in 2008 — but had more question marks about his overall game.
“I didn’t pay too much attention, but people were saying I wasn’t an every-down back, just a first- or second-down back, couldn’t catch out of the backfield, pass (protection) was shaky,” Greene said.
Moreno led all rookies with 947 yards rushing while often sharing carries with veteran Correll Buckhalter for a solid, but not spectacular, first season. He often struggled in the second half of games, especially in the final portion of the season, had difficulty in short-yardage situations and rarely broke through to the second level of the defense. All those problems, McDaniels said, were more the fault of poor offensive-line play than poor running by Moreno.
Greene finished the regular season with 540 yards rushing on 108 carries, with five runs of more than 20 yards. Moreno had only two runs longer than 20 yards on 247 carries.
Of course, it is impossible to predict how Sanchez and Greene would have played had they ended up as Broncos.
The Jets have tried to operate a low-risk passing game for Sanchez, letting the running game with Thomas Jones, Greene and an all-star offensive line take much of the offensive burden off the rookie.
“Hopefully, in the future I’ll be able to take more chances and really get a feel for things,” Sanchez said. “Right now, it’s better to be smart than good.”
Lindsay Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com
Rookies under fire
New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez is trying to become the first rookie quarterback to lead his team to the Super Bowl. Since the 1999 season, three rookie quarterbacks have started the conference championship game, but all lost:
1999 — Shaun King, Tampa Bay: King, who replaced an injured Trent Dilfer midseason, quarterbacked the Bucs to a division title and a divisional-round victory over the Redskins. But King threw two interceptions in an 11-6 NFC championship game loss to the Rams.
2004 — Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh: Big Ben went 13-0 as a starter in the regular season his rookie year and led the Steelers to a divisional-round victory against the Jets. In his first AFC championship game, however, Roethlisberger threw three interceptions, including one that was returned for a touchdown, in a 41-27 loss to the Patriots.
2008 — Joe Flacco, Baltimore: Flacco led the wild-card Ravens to two playoff victories to advance to the AFC title game but struggled there against the Steelers’ defense. He took three sacks and threw three interceptions in Pittsburgh’s 23-14 victory.
Lindsay H. Jones, The Denver Post
