Mark Brunell has apparently gotten some snaps with the first team offense this week.

Ryan revealed Tuesday that he has gone back to one of his motivational ploys from a year ago: giving some of Sanchez’s reps with the first team to 41-year-old backup Mark Brunell. However, Brunell said out of the four snaps, three were running plays anyway.

This sure seems like a silly gimmick. Doesn't it? If Rex wants to light a fire under Sanchez, he probably should have a backup quarterback who could conceivably start over him. Rex even later admitted he is not going to bench Sanchez in favor of Brunell to the press.

Part of the rationale behind making Brunell the backup seems to have been making Sanchez feel safe by not having a capable guy behind him. It seemed like kind of a silly idea at the time. Now the Jets are going in the other direction. They want to light a fire under him, but that falls a bit flat without a quality backup.

On a more important level, having Brunell means there is no viable option to fix things when Sanchez struggles, which is a problem itself.