By Mary Cunningham
If you are Mark Sanchez, you might not want to renew the lease on your apartment in Philly.
Because chances are good that the Eagles will not renew the lease on his contract.
Sanchez’s return to MetLife Stadium on Sunday was moderately successful.
With an asterisk.
Sanchez played well in the Eagles’ 34-26 victory over the Giants, but Philly is sitting at home for the playoffs, and Sanchez is still headed for an uncertain future in free agency because of that.
In fact, it is unlikely that he’ll be back in midnight green.
But all of that appeared to be the last thing on Sanchez’s mind after he closed out the season with a solid effort — 23-of-36 passing for 292 yards and two touchdowns — in the same stadium where he had so many ups and downs with the Jets.
“Any time you come back to a stadium where you have so many fun memories, it’s great,” Sanchez said. “It’s great to come back to a stadium like this and win.”
Sanchez had much to do with that victory. As well as throwing the two TD passes, he ran seven times for 22 yards and led the Eagles to points on seven of their 13 drives.
Sanchez was sacked four times and also threw one interception, but unlike during the recent three-game skid with him under center that cost the Eagles a playoff spot, the miscue didn’t come back to haunt Philly.
Even so, Sanchez’s performance didn’t exactly prompt a gusher of postgame praise from Eagles coach Chip Kelly.
“I thought, like with a lot of our guys, there were some plays where you were like, ‘Wow, that’s a hell of a play,’ ’’ Kelly said. “Then there were some other times where you probably want that one back. Mark got banged around a little bit, but I thought he did a good job.”
Sanchez’s immediate future is a similar mixed bag. He went 5-4 in place of the injured Nick Foles, including a 33-10 road win over the Cowboys, but one of those losses was to the wretched Redskins, and Philly missed the postseason.
There was also the not-so-small matter of Sanchez’s turnover problem. He committed 14 in his nine appearances, which was the most of any player in the NFL between Nov. 2 and Sunday.
As a result, Sanchez’s destiny isn’t likely to be the full-time starting job with the Eagles. The door might be open to return to Philly on another short-term deal as the backup, although so many teams are in desperate need of a quarterback Sanchez could end up starting again — somewhere.
But nothing about Sanchez’s situation is certain these days, and the quarterback himself wasn’t interested in clearing it up Sunday.
“Listen, I’m not going to get into all that hypothetical stuff,” he said when asked if he would re-sign with the Eagles without the guarantee of the starting job. “I don’t know what’s going on. Any more personnel questions, ask Coach Kelly.”
Nor was Sanchez willing to ponder whether he had improved a reputation that was in tatters when the Jets released him last spring.
“That’s for you [media] guys to debate, and I’m not really worried about that,” Sanchez said. “I’m thrilled about getting the opportunity [with the Eagles], I’m thrilled about making new friends on this team, and hopefully we can continue to do s
