National Football League

Sanchez unlikely to finish season finale

Published Dec. 29, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

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New York Jets coach Rex Ryan on Wednesday remained oddly noncommittal about his plans for quarterback Mark Sanchez in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Buffalo Bills at the Meadowlands.

“I haven’t decided that he’s going to play 'X' amount of plays or if he’s going to play at all,’’ Ryan said. “I’m leaning to think that maybe he’ll play some, but we’ll see."

Bet on this: Sanchez will at least start the game and play a portion of the first half.

The one thing Ryan was sure about was the fact that Sanchez will not play the entire game. “I don’t see that,’’ Ryan said.

When pressed about Sanchez playing as long as his shoulder is healthy, he said, “I think we will play him."

Ryan said Wednesday that Sanchez’s sore right shoulder felt better this time this week than it did at this time last week and Sanchez played one of his better games last Sunday in Chicago.

Ryan, too, has not hidden the fact that he wants to keep Sanchez in the same rhythm he has been in the past two games, during which he has played well and seen his completion percentage rise dramatically.

Sanchez has completed 65.2 percent of his passes in the past two games against top-rated defenses — more than 10 percentage points higher than his 54.8-percent season average.

“At this point, he’s much better right now than he was last week at this point,’’ Ryan said. “He’s feeling pretty good about it all. He kind of does have that hot hand and more than anything I want him to make sure he’s ready to go (Sunday).

“I’m not going to put him in a situation where he’s going to get hurt,’’ Ryan added. “If we don’t think he’s 100 percent or right at it I’d have a tough time playing him."

Sanchez, asked if it was up to him what he’d do, said, “I’m glad I’m not a head coach. I always want to play. I like practicing, I like playing. It’s all I think about. I just want to be smart with my shoulder and make sure the reps I get are quality reps and that nothing slips in preparation.

“If it were up to me I’d see how it feels on Sunday," Sanchez added. “I just want to be ready for the playoffs. I know what kind of a grind that is from last year and I need to play even better this year than I did in the playoffs last year for us to win."

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