Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s top priority this offseason was to improve Sanchez’s understanding of protections.

“Mark knew the protections last year, but he didn’t really know the protections,” Schottenheimer told me. “He didn’t really know all the issues that came with the protections. That’s not unlike most young quarterbacks. So we’re trying to make him get caught up with that.”…

Schottenheimer admitted that Sanchez would have received a 75-80 grade on that test last week.

Now, here’s the amazing part: “If you gave that test to Mark at the end of the season,” Schottenheimer said, “he probably would have gotten a 50 or a 40.”

– Manish Mehta, N.Y. Daily News.

If you thought Awesomestock was going to fly by without one mention of the Sanchize, well, welcome aboard, new reader. We’re talking about the quarterback OF THE FUTURE here, the white-pants wearing, boat-phone owning, celebrity bedding, potential secret Jonas Brother.

And if you thought Mark Sanchez would be content just sleeping with models atop big piles of money and enjoying all the spoils of a relatively successful rookie season, you’re wrong again.

Even while recovering from offseason knee surgery — ahead of schedule, of course — Sanchez has committed himself to learning. Handsomely learning.

All sports have their own unique set of intricacies, but I think the details of football — especially offensive football — are all too frequently overlooked by even the NFL Sunday Ticket set, the sport’s most hardcore devotees. The Mets can score runs with half their lineup not hitting and the Knicks can put up points with some scrubs on the floor, but no football team will ever move the ball reliably without all 11 men on the field executing on every play.

I’m biased because I played and coached football with more success than I ever did any other sport, but I can vouch for the fact that learning everything about a scheme — specifically every player’s assignment, as Sanchez is working to do — makes any football player much, much better.

Plenty of guys will always be content to know only their own responsibilities and with enough raw talent that should be enough to get them by. But those of us without overwhelming physical gifts stand to hugely benefit from a thorough understanding of an offense. Knowing not just what every player on the field should be doing, but why he is doing it helps a player better recognize what to do in the event something goes wrong, since plenty of plays fail to go exactly according to plan.

If Sanchez is really studying like this story makes it seem, he should have a better sense of how to adjust when a lineman misses a block and where to scramble when the protection starts to break down.

Sexily scramble.

Look at this man. He had to put down his flash cards just to answer this phone call. Stop disturbing Mark Sanchez, dammit! He’s got work to do.