A few hours before kickoff against the Buffalo Bills today, Tony Sparano and Mark Sanchez plan to walk the length of the MetLife Stadium field together.
In a league dependent on routines, this is a new one between the new Jets offensive coordinator and his starting quarterback. Sanchez already calls it “one of my favorite things.”
They rehearsed the walk in each preseason game this summer, joined by backups Tim Tebow and Greg McElroy. They will start at the goal line and steadily advance, Sparano referencing his call sheet and Sanchez his wristband, as they move through each phase of the field.
What plays will they use backed up in their own territory? Between the 20-yard lines? In the red zone? At the goal line? Where will they face pressure?
The 100-yard march will reinforce their game plan, and also something else: the relationship between Sparano and Sanchez, which may be one of the most critical factors to a Jets season that has inspired both great curiosity and external skepticism as it opens today.
They must break in a new offensive system that, in its vanilla form, yielded just one preseason touchdown. They must help Sanchez take that proverbial “next step” in his fourth NFL season. And of course, as all of the country knows, they must navigate a balance with a popular backup quarterback who figures to replace Sanchez on the field in certain packages and plays.
“He trusts the fact that I’m going to do the right thing,” Sparano said of Sanchez. He then smiled and added, “If Mark is throwing the ball at 70 percent, the way he is throwing the ball right now, we may leave him alone for a little while.”
HONEST COMMUNICATION
The two men have had eight months, since Sparano was hired to replace Brian Schottenheimer, to forge a trust strong enough to withstand the pressures of this unique situation.
They’ve had two-hour sitdowns in Sparano’s office, and dinners at home with Sparano’s wife, Jeanette. They text-message — Sparano’s daughter taught him a few years ago — usually about topics other than football, like Sparano ribbing Sanchez when he saw him on TV at the Manny Pacquiao fight in June.
Sparano is now the first person Sanchez confers with on the sideline after an offensive series, instead of quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh, who is back in the coaches’ box for the first time since Sanchez’s rookie year. Sparano wanted to use Cavanaugh’s eyes upstairs, but the move also speaks well to Sparano’s early rapport with Sanchez.
“From the outset, he said, ‘I want you to be able to talk to me,’ ” Sanchez said. “ ‘My door is always open. Don’t hold back. If we need to close the door and you need to scream and holler, fine. If you need to come in here and laugh and joke, fine. But we’ve got to be able to talk.’ ”
This attribute of Sparano’s — seeking open and honest communication — was the first thing Chad Pennington, the former Jets and Miami Dolphins quarterback, shared with Sanchez during their tutoring sessions this past winter in south Florida.
Sparano is a tough, no-nonsense coach who reserves the highest standards for his quarterbacks. Coach Rex Ryan was reminded of this when he walked into a meeting this offseason and watched Sanchez “getting ripped” by Sparano for a mistake, despite Sanchez’s otherwise keen mastery of the offense.
Sanchez has responded well, seeing in Sparano his father, who raised his three sons by similarly demanding only their best.
But behind Sparano’s hard shell is a desire to understand and protect his players. Pennington, who started in Miami when Sparano was the head coach, told Sanchez he would see the big picture and understand the public and personal stressors. Sparano would give him a haven to air out his feelings, Pennington added, and that would be the key to their success.
“You could tell that was an interesting concept for him, but Mark has been able to step out of his comfort zone and build a relationship with Tony,” Pennington said. “(Sparano’s) No. 1 goal is that the quarterback has an environment to be successful in.”
That may be particularly important on this Jets team, which has been hounded by questions about how and how often Tebow — the Broncos starter-turned-Jets wildcat quarterback — will be used. General manager Mike Tannenbaum’s most recent estimate came Friday on ESPN radio, when he said Sanchez will receive 80-90 percent of the snaps during the season.
Sparano assures there will be a “method to our madness.” If Sanchez comes off the field for any of Tebow’s wildcat-type plays, Sparano instructed him to treat those snaps as extra timeouts — just like Pennington did in 2008, when the Dolphins rolled out the wildcat.
HE'S BUYING IN
Sanchez, to his credit, has turned himself over to Sparano’s system — “now our system,” he says — even if that system took on a whole new element when the Jets made their bold trade for Tebow in March. Sanchez remembers a promise Sparano made to him soon after his hiring, that Sanchez would have a chance to be a special player in this league if he bought in and let Sparano help mold him, and Sanchez hasn’t wavered.
Sparano in fact long has felt what he called a “small connection” to Sanchez. It started before the 2009 draft, when he and members of his Dolphins staff traveled to Southern California to meet with the USC prospect. Sparano said the Dolphins were considering Sanchez “very strongly,” but they picked late in the round and the Jets traded up to select Sanchez No. 5 overall.
The division rivals met twice a year for the next three seasons, and after each game, Sanchez would find Sparano on the field for a brief chat.
Sparano was fired as the Dolphins’ head coach late last season, and when the Jets called in January, Tannenbaum knew Sanchez was “one of the reasons we were attractive” to Sparano. In return, the Jets saw a coach whose sincerity and experience with several NFL quarterbacks could restore Sanchez after a tough 2011 season derailed by turnovers and locker room rifts.
“I had just gone through something. He had just gone through something,” Sparano said. “So it was kind of a weird thing; it was almost like this thing came together. I needed this situation and a kid like Mark, and hopefully he feels the same way, that this was a good thing.”
Then, he cracked, “It depends on the day.”
Pennington has seen the impact of Sparano on Sanchez already, noting his improved command — of the football, the offense and his teammates. But the true test begins today. Many outsiders expect the offense to fail given the lackluster preseason performances and the uncharted Tebow dynamic.
Sparano and Sanchez, though, will take that walk across the MetLife turf later this morning with higher expectations.
“There are two things they are totally together on,” Ryan said. “They both want to win, and they both want Mark to do well.”
Jenny Vrentas: jvrentas@starledger.com; twitter.com/JennyVrentas