Mark Sanchez will get his first NFL start in Preseason Game 2 at Baltimore on Aug. 24.
Bruce Speight, the Jets' senior director of media relations, announced to reporters after the conclusion of this morning's practice at SUNY Cortland that Sanchez, who got one very productive series behind starter Kellen Clemens against St. Louis on Friday night, will move into the starter's position. The showing will come on a fairly big summer stage — on ESPN's Monday night telecast, against a Ravens defense coordinated for four years by Rex Ryan coming off a preseason-opening home shutout of the Redskins.
After the announcement, both QBs spoke with reporters in a tent shielding them from the hot central New York sun. As Sanchez said, the starting nod from Ryan and OC Brian Schottenheimer "is just a matter of rotation. Nothing's changed yet."
Sanchez and Clemens have been alternating first-team reps. The rookie from Southern Cal, after completing three of four passes for 88 yards on an eight-play, 93-yard touchdown drive vs. the Rams, worked with the ones at this morning's practice.
Ryan, who didn't announce his starter for the Ravens game after the loss to the Rams, will be speaking with reporters at his daily late-morning news conference in about 15 minutes.
We'll have Eric Allen's story on the two quarterbacks' postpractice remarks for you later this afternoon on newyorkjets.com.
Update, 12:49 p.m.: Ryan an hour ago confirmed his decision to start Sanchez vs. the Ravens.
"I wanted to make sure I checked with the doctors and the trainers to make sure there were no surprises," the coach said. "And we also wanted to let the quarterbacks know that Sanchez will start the game against the Ravens. As far as play time, there's so many things that go into that. I'm not ready to tell you how many snaps and all that kind of stuff. I can tell you both guys have a heck of a challenge [next] week. Heck, the whole team will."
