The looming acquisition of a backup quarterback doesn’t always make headlines, but Mark Sanchez is no ordinary signal caller in these extraordinary times.
The Washington Redskins will sign the veteran free-agent quarterback this week, ESPN’s Field Yates reported Monday, citing a source. He’ll serve as the understudy to Colt McCoy, who became Washington’s presumed starter Sunday after Alex Smith suffered a gruesome broken leg in the Week 11 matchup against the Houston Texans.
Washington only had two quarterbacks on its roster at the time of Smith’s injury, and didn’t have any on its practice squad.
The NFL suspended Sanchez, 32, for the first four games of the 2018 season for violating its policy on performance-enhancing substances. He spent the 2017 season on the Chicago Bears’ roster but didn’t appear in a regular-season game. He last played played in a game during the 2016 season for the Dallas Cowboys.
Sanchez spent four seasons as the starting quarterback for the New York Jets, who selected him out of USC with the fifth overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.
He’s most infamous for his Nov. 22, 2012 butt-fumble, one of the biggest bloopers in recent NFL history. Sanchez’s reported arrival in Washington will fall on or near the butt-fumble’s sixth anniversary, and we can’t help but point out that coincidence.
