Jet's Draftroom Details/Drafting Sanchez

Guys, here's an article describing the process Mark Sanchez became a NY JET.

It may have been posted back in Jan........I wanted my Draft Brothers here at TGG to see this great article.

Long article...worth the read!!!

Enjoy!!!


http://www.northjersey.com/sports/0...nchise_grabbed_its_franchise_QB.html?page=all




O'Connor: How the franchise grabbed its franchise QB

Tuesday, January 12, 2010


Last updated: Tuesday January 12, 2010, 10:57 PM
By IAN O'CONNOR


RECORD COLUMNIST 3 Comments FLORHAM PARK - Rex Ryan was on the phone in Mike Tannenbaum’s office, making the most important call of his NFL life. On a Friday night in April, a world away from a second-round playoff game in San Diego, Ryan spent 15 minutes trying to convince a nondescript safety to sign a form he had no good reason to sign.
The Jets wanted to acquire Mark Sanchez the following day, and they needed Abe Elam, of all people, to allow them to do it.

Elam had signed a one-year, $1.5-million offer sheet with Eric Mangini’s Browns, the Jets had matched it, and a quirky league rule prevented any matching team from trading a player to the signing team within a calendar year without that player’s consent.
But on the eve of the draft, Mangini made it clear to the friend who had just fired him four months earlier he wanted Elam in the deal that would give the Jets the fifth overall pick, and the quarterback out of their California dreams.
Before calling Elam, Tannenbaum thought to himself, “Why would he ever sign this piece of paper?”

He couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer, until Ryan grabbed the phone.
“And Rex starts giving this incredible talk to him,” Tannenbaum recalled Tuesday, “telling him he had a better chance to start in Cleveland, but that it probably won’t happen and we’d still want you to be a Jet.
“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, he’s so good. We’ve got the right head coach. Man, what a salesman.’”

Elam bought the used car, faxed back the signed sheet that night, and the Jets forwarded it to the league office at 11 p.m. Tannenbaum and Ryan left their Florham Park facility believing they were 85 percent home on the USC quarterback who had wowed them with his accuracy outside the pocket, and with tales of washing his teammates’ uniforms at his Mission Viejo home.
Neither coach nor GM had any idea how turbulent that final 15 percent of the transaction would be.


On draft day, Tannenbaum arrived at the office at 7:30 a.m., hit the gym, and then furiously worked the phones before the start of the 4 p.m. draft. He called Sanchez in California at 10:15 a.m Eastern.

“I just want you to tell your parents they did a hell of a job raising you,” Tannenbaum told him, “and I’ll consider myself a successful parent if my kids turn out to be as nice and polite as you.

“Mark, I’ve been through a lot of drafts, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I just want to wish you the best. You might be a Jet, but there’s a better chance you won’t be. Either way, you’ve earned everything you’ve gotten and I hope you have a great career.”
The GM figured he could get Sanchez if he jumped from the 17th pick to Cleveland’s No. 5, but collected as much information as he could about the teams holding picks 1 through 4 – Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City and Seattle.
The Lions were taking Matthew Stafford, and Kansas City had already acquired Matt Cassel. Tannenbaum had solid intelligence on Seattle that told him the Seahawks wouldn’t select Sanchez, either.
But the Rams worried him at No. 2. They demanded a first-round pick and David Harris for their slot, according to a league source, and the Jets found the price too steep.
Woody Johnson, team owner, was among the nine Jets decision makers gathered in their upstairs draft room, down the hall from Tannenbaum’s office. They sat in black chairs at a white conference table; a speaker phone rested in the middle with remote microphones nearby.

On one side of that table, Tannenbaum sat between his predecessor, Terry Bradway, and the VP of college scouting, Joey Clinkscales (“My go-to guys,” Tannenbaum called them), facing a wall carrying the names of all prospects and the message, “Talent and Character – You can’t have one without the other.”
On the other side, Ryan faced a wall carrying the line, “In God we trust. For everyone else we need data.”

The Lions took Stafford, and the Rams were on deck. The room fell silent. Tannenbaum turned to his lieutenants and delivered the following order:
“Everybody, right now, I want you to think good thoughts. Anything you’ve done from a philanthropic standpoint, think about that.”
Tannenbaum thought of the foundation he started at his alma mater, UMass, a scholarship program for interns pursuing a career in sports.
“And when they said, ‘the St. Louis Rams select,’” Tannenbaum recalled, “I was like, ‘Come on!’”
The Rams had been bluffing all along. They took Jason Smith, the tackle from Baylor.
“We’re still alive,” Tannenbaum shouted.
Sanchez was still on the board when the Browns went on the clock at No. 5. They had 10 minutes to make their pick, and Tannenbaum and Mangini – frenemies once joined at the hip -- played a little poker game.
“I felt like I wanted him to call me,” Tannenbaum said, “because I felt whoever was going to call first would have less leverage.”
Ninety seconds into the standoff, Mangini blinked. Tannenbaum’s phone rang, and his former coach was on the line.
Mangini wanted Elam, defensive end Kenyon Coleman, the Jets’ pick at No. 17, their second-round pick (No. 52), and another pick. Tannenbaum didn’t want to surrender a third draft choice.

Jacqueline Davidson, a team official responsible for assessing the value of trade packages, advised Tannenbaum against adding that third pick to the deal. The clock was ticking, and Woody Johnson was pacing around the conference table. Mangini turned over negotiations to Browns GM George Kokinis, and Tannenbaum covered the phone and asked Ryan if he could throw the backup quarterback, Brett Ratliff, into the pot.
Rex gave his blessing.
“OK,” Kokinis said. “I think we’ll do that.”
“And that’s when things really got nervewracking,” Tannenbaum recalled.
The Jets and Browns had to agree on compensation in the event Coleman or Ratliff failed his physicals (Elam had already passed a Browns physical when signing his offer sheet), and the league wouldn’t notarize the trade until it had received calls from both franchises confirming the terms.

Realizing he was running dangerously low on time, Tannenbaum called Joel Bussert, a league official. “Come on Joel,” he barked. “Are we on the clock? Are we on the clock?”
Tannenbaum was afraid that the 10-minute window would expire, and that Cincinnati – lurking at No. 6 -- would jump ahead of the Jets and trade Sanchez to the highest bidder.
With two and a half minutes left in the game, Bussert finally told Tannenbaum he was on the clock.

The GM called Sanchez just to make sure he hadn’t torn his rotator cuff or an ACL since they last spoke. So stunned and overcome with glee that the Jets had acquired him, Sanchez thought someone was impersonating Tannenbaum as a practical joke.
“Here, talk to your new head coach,” Tannenbaum told Sanchez as he passed the phone to Ryan.
Ninety seconds remained for Tannenbaum to call the two Jets officials at Radio City Music Hall – Vito Contento, equipment manager, and Tim Tubito, video director – and direct them to hand Sanchez’s name to an assigned runner. Matt Higgins, head of business operations, told the GM the team wanted Johnson to make the announcement on Twitter. Tannenbaum had barely heard of Twitter.
“Woody,” he said, “whatever you’ve got to do, tweet, toot, whatever, you’ve got to do it now.”
Johnson walked out of the room working his remote device with his thumbs, “and I was so nervous,” Tannenbaum said, “because we only had 60 seconds to go.”
A Same Old Jets moment to end all Same Old Jets moments was only a minute away.
“We’d already given up three players and two picks,” Tannenbaum said. “We’ve got to get our guy.”

Finally, with Johnson out of sight and 30 seconds left, Tannenbaum ordered one of his college scouts, Jay Mandolesi, to call Contento and Tubito with the official pick.
Sanchez became a Jet. And Tannenbaum, a boyhood fan of the Celtics, had himself a deal that would’ve made Red Auerbach proud.
Ian O’Connor can be followed at Twitter.com/Ian_OConnor and appears on ESPN-AM 1050 on Sunday mornings.

 

Those 2 Russians are annoying as shit.

Camera Whores!!!

They cheered for Gholston.....wrong 2 years in a row.