Mark Sanchez has elected to undergo elective surgery on his left knee in order to stabilize the patella. The procedure, which will be performed by team doctors, will take place in the next couple of weeks and the team expects Sanchez ready to go for the start of training camp.
“I would just say there may have been some small tweaks along the way, but if there’s any procedure, it won’t be anything significant,” said general manager Mike Tannenbaum last week. “It’s going to be much more of a rehab situation, more preventive, strengthening, things like that.”
The 23-year-old Sanchez finished with a 92.7 passer rating in three playoff games, completing 60.3 percent of his passes for 539 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions. He originally hurt his left knee while at the University of Southern California and missed four plays of a 17-6 Week 12 victory over the Carolina Panthers after he was tackled on a scramble and landed on that knee.
“You don’t want to have anybody miss any time, especially a young quarterback, but we’ll balance that with a medical procedure that may give him more stability in there and give him a chance to play without any worry about that whatsoever,” Tannenbaum said.
A couple of days after the Jets’ season ended in Indianapolis, Sanchez had both his knees examined by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. The No. 5 overall selection in last April’s draft suffered a mild right knee sprain while diving headfirst for an 8-yard gain in the Jets’ 19-13 Week 13 victory over the Bills at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
That right knee will be strengthened through rehabilitation, but Sanchez chose to go the surgical route with the left.
“I think everyone is on the same page,” Tannenbaum said. “It’s not going to be anything major. We expect him to be fully healthy well before camp.”
Here is the discussion thread from our New York Jets message board.