The Jets didn't get a chance to draft Matthew Stafford, who went with the 1st pick of the draft, but it seemed to everyone at the time that they got their man picking Mark Sanchez with the 5th pick of the draft...  A lot of comparisons were made between these two QBs throughout the off-season and the preseason.  Well, now that Stafford is officially on Injured Reserve, maybe its time to do a side-by-side.

Before I begin, I will openly recognize a few things:

1. The quality of the teams these QBs played on differs

2. Both QBs did NOT play in the same number of games

Player   TD / Int / Completion Pct / QB Rating / Sacks

Sanchez 12/20/54.0/63.2/26

Stafford  13/20/53.3/61.0/24

Freeman 9/16/55.2/61.0/19

It doesn't look good for any of the top 1st rounders of 2009....  I think expectations were higher for Sanchez because he started so strong and the team around him was much better than the Lions.  But the numbers show that these two QBs (and all three with Freeman in the mix) all played more or less the same. 

There are of course some intangibles like leadership and poise, but I don't know that we have enough information on any of these QBs to really decide if these guys can live up to the hype or not.  I think the answer will be more clear in a few seasons, but for now, only one of these QBs is in the hunt for a playoff spot, so in my eyes, that is still the key statistic (cause its all about winning a Super Bowl, isn't it?)

Who will have the better career?  I have no idea but my money isn't on JaMarcus Russell...