Will Mark Sanchez flourish or flop with the Eagles?

A couple questions come to mind: 1) Will Kelly drastically change the offense based on Sanchez’s skillset (i.e., does Sanchez have deficiencies that require Kelly to take major tenets out of the playbook?), and 2) Are the Eagles significantly worse with Sanchez running the offense?

Here. You just got into the game. Go throw a bomb. I love that.

Now, that said, it is clear Kelly, renowned as an offensive genius when it comes to calling plays and coaching up his players to execute his scheme, will tailor the Eagles offense around Sanchez’s abilities. Guess what? Every good coach should do this.

“I’ve said that since Day 1,” Kelly said this week. “Our offense is directed around our quarterback. So tell me who is playing quarterback, and I’ll tell you what our offense is going to be and how it’s going to look because we can always cater it to the skills of our offense. That’s the beauty of what we’re doing here.”

“You can get a good feel of what he likes and what he doesn’t like when we’re going over things on a weekly basis,” said Kelly. “I’ve got a good feel for Mark. I mean, we’re not going to start running speed-option. We’re going to run our offense the way we run it. I think there may be a throw here that he likes better. ... Little things like that. But we won’t drastically change anything if he’s in there.”

In other words, Kelly’s not going to call a bunch of plays that ask Sanchez to make throws he’s ill-equipped or unable to make. Part of the beauty of his offense has been that it’s always “quarterback-friendly.”

As Eagles’ offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur, has noted, “We don’t bog them down with a lot of silly things, so the ball can come out quicker.” Timing and accuracy are the two key attributes they look for in a quarterback, and as long as Sanchez makes sound decisions, he’ll be fine. Kelly and Shurmur’s system is designed to get playmakers open in space so Sanchez’s role is to just feed them the football.

“It feels like a fast break in basketball.” Sanchez explained. “You’re the point guard, and just dish it to the open guy. Don’t hang on to it too long, and try not to get hit.”

The Eagles’ offense has a foundation in the run game, and their main scheme up front marries the zone blocking scheme with inside and outside zone read option plays. In other words, on a good majority of their run plays, the line and the running back are going one way, and the quarterback has the option of “keeping” it on a read option and running the other direction.

If Sanchez has a clear advantage in one area over Foles, I’d say it’s foot speed, so he could add a little bit in the keeper-option for the Eagles’ read option game.

The Eagles like to use constraint plays when defenses start keying in on the run a little too much, and you’ll see a lot of smoke routes, screens, and designed plays to get the ball to running backs or slot receivers with some room to run. The Eagles’ offensive line is athletic and can get down field to block in a hurry.

Expect this, plus designed screens and quick slants that get playmakers in space. That’s where sound decision making, timing, accuracy come into play -- the most important attributes for Kelly’s quarterbacks.

On Sunday, Sanchez’s first turnover (which really wasn’t totally his fault) came on a play-action pass. The key is to freeze the second level defenders for just long enough to allow your receiver to get in behind them. Then, with that split-second (or more, ideally) advantage, you can loft it over their heads.

The key is the positioning of the linebackers. You hope to impede them in their zone drops or man-coverage.

That ball should’ve been caught. To show confidence in his quarterback and maybe help Sanchez forget about that play, Kelly dials up a very similar play the next time the Eagles get the ball back.

As you saw in that Vine above of Sanchez’s first throw of the game, the Eagles like to attack deep. It’s a big part of how they work their run game with their play-action throwing game. They’ve got a couple of nice threats down the field. The key is for the Eagles to protect Sanchez long enough to allow the routes to get deep, and for Sanchez to make throws with, again, timing and accuracy. I don’t think that Sanchez has the strongest arm in the world, but he’s good enough that this aspect of the offense won’t change a ton.

I think Kelly and Shurmur will continue to design plays that ask Mark to get the ball out quickly. By spreading the defense out with some of their formations, the Eagles can simplify reads for Sanchezs, as Shurmur said, it doesn’t “bog him down with a lot of silly things.”

One of Sanchez’s throws from Sunday was really a pretty great throw, and it came on a pretty easy read for him. When the safety to the left side of the field dropped down into the box, Sanchez really just had to make sure that outside corner wasn’t going to jump anything inside. Sanchez then floated a seam pass up and over the defender, whose back was turned as he ran with Jordan Matthews. That’s a veteran throw.

That said, I thought that Sanchez made a few throws to the middle of the field that he probably shouldn’t have thrown. This will be one area to watch. He forced a couple into zone coverage and that’s where he got his other interception. It will be interesting to see if Kelly looks to avoid these types of plays.

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it. Logic would dictate that if he was the better option for the Eagles that he’d already be the starter. That said, sometimes a backup can come in and revitalize a stale offense and spark certain skill players to higher levels. I don’t know if that’s really how you’d characterize Mark Sanchez, but I do think if there’s any scheme he can flourish in, this is it. He’s relatively mobile, he’s experienced (including in the Playoffs), he’s been with the team long enough now to have picked up the system well, and he seems to have, at least publicly, the backing of his teammates. This is something that’s obviously very important.

Said Maclin: “Mark can play, man. There’s no question about it. He’s also surrounded by a lot more talent than what he had in New York, so the sky’s the limit.”

That could just be a nice bit of lip service, but I don’t see any Eagles hitting the panic button just yet, particularly because Sanchez came in and helped lead them to a win last week on the road. It also doesn’t hurt that the media thus far has given Sanchez a pretty decent chance of working out well in Kelly’s system. Considering his fall from grace in New York, the outlook for how he’ll fare in this new system has been pretty forgiving, even optimistic.

He continued, “It’s going to be interesting to see if Mark Sanchez and maybe give a little bit of a lift at the position, because he was getting the ball out quick, especially at the beginning of the game when he came in off the injury, was making good decisions, was making some big throws down the field, which we know this offense is all based around. So, I really liked what I saw from Mark Sanchez.”

This is obviously a great opportunity for the former top-10 pick to rehabilitate his career. For me, the biggest concern is his mindset. Turnovers will be the biggest key -- he has to play conservatively enough to take care of the football while still making the deeper throws down the field when he’s asked to. If he can get himself into a rhythm of the Eagles’ fast-paced offense and play the role of a facilitator, it’s not wild to imagine the Eagles maintain their level of play, or even improve. If he starts turning the ball over, things could go south quickly. He did throw two picks this past week so even if only one of them was really his fault, it’s something that’s slightly concerning. Overall, it should be one of the biggest and most interesting storylines of the second half of the season.