Nick Mangold isn't the only person defending Mark Sanchez. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson stood up for beleaguered quarterback Sanchez, telling the New York Daily News he disagreed with the Jets players who hid behind a cloak of anonymity and called Sanchez "lazy."
"I've never heard that," Johnson said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program on Thursday. "He's the first guy in the building every morning and the last guy to leave. So, the last thing he is is lazy. ... He's an NFL quarterback. That's what you expect from an NFL quarterback....I think everybody is a little frustrated."
Johnson noted that the Jets "should be" in turmoil because New Yorkers don't like losers and an 8-8 record shouldn't be considered acceptable. But he believes Rex Ryan needs to do a better job of reading his team. Ryan has acknowledged that he did not have a good "pulse" on the team this season.
"I think he does," Johnson said. "How do you correct that? That's alchemy. Inside the locker room is one of those things that every year is a little different. Thirty percent new players. The fact that we didn't go to Cortland maybe hurt us... Every team didn't have an offseason. So maybe it hurt us a little more than some others."
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