I don't know if any player is ever going to be as firmly entrenched in a rivalry as Jason Taylor is in the Jets/Dolphins rivalry. He's been on both sides of it. After an eternity on one side, he switched sides. Then he switched back. Everyone in Miami and New York has both cheered for him and loathed him.
In a rivalry that's never short on words, Taylor, unsolicited, offered a comparison between Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne and Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. From NBC Miami:
"We need to grow and we need to continue to change, and I think Chad [Henne] has grown immensely since I left here a year ago. I saw a kid in New York, Mark Sanchez, that is young, I don't think he's as talented as Chad Henne."
Chad Henne? In the same elite class as Mark Sanchez? I gasp.
I guess it depends on how you define "talented." If Taylor is talking about the raw physical skills required to play the game, I don't have a problem buying that Henne's better than Sanchez. As far as mobility goes, they're probably pretty close -- both in that unspectacular but adequate range. Henne's a little bigger and a little stronger. He's probably got better arm strength.
How much that matters in determining which guy is a better quarterback is up for debate, though. For that, you'd have to judge both guys on what's going on between the ears. Not intelligence, mind you, but recognizing coverages, poise (advantage, Sanchez), confidence, decision-making, reactions, etc. Then there are other things like the support they get from teammates, scheme, what they're expected to do in their respective offenses, etc. All that makes it a pretty difficult race to call.
Taylor, having played with both of them, would know better than most. I don't expect that that means Jets fans will agree with him. Sanchez has that top-five draft pick pedigree and is something of a media darling, while Henne was taken 57th overall and his short career's always had kind of a "placeholder while waiting for something better to come along" feel.
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