Problems? Not at quarterback

'It's supposed to hurt,'' Mark Sanchez said Monday, but he didn't need words to convey it.

Standing before a wall of cameras at his locker, the Jets quarterback struggled to keep his composure as he looked back on another squandered Super Bowl opportunity.

Finally, the season's last interview over, he turned away, gathered his belongings and walked off.

It was a heartening scene for Jets fans on two levels.

On one hand, Sanchez clearly cares, and clearly understands there are no givens in the fickle NFL, so disappointments can't simply be shrugged off with the expectation of another shot next year.

On the other, the guy is only 24, and he already has provided the Jets the single most important element for a franchise hoping to contend every year: a reliable quarterback.

No, Sanchez is not Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or even Ben Roethlisberger, whom he outplayed in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

But he has achieved a status akin to that of the Giants' Eli Manning: a guy with whom a team can win.

"If you have a great quarterback, then you can have a heck of a football team and have a heck of a run,'' coach Rex Ryan said. "And that's obviously what we plan on doing.''

OK, so Rex looks at "good'' and sees "great,'' but the general sentiment is right on.

When someone asked Ryan if he believes Sanchez would have driven the Jets for the winning touchdown if the defense had given him the chance, he said: "Absolutely. You know I believe it.''

We do. What changed during the course of Sanchez's sophomore season was that everyone from teammates to fans to media cynics began to believe it, too.

After a regular season full of late heroics, Sanchez finished strongly in all three playoff games. Finally, grudgingly, it's time to give him his due.

Sanchez demonstrated his toughness by playing through a sore throwing shoulder down the stretch and by shaking off a blow to his non-throwing elbow Sunday on a sack by Ike Taylor. He was 13-for-18 for 170 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.

About that shoulder, Sanchez said the medical staff was "thrilled'' with his progress and that he hopes to avoid surgery.

"If it was something serious, I think it would have declined, things would have gotten worse,'' he said. "If anything, it just got better . . . I'm optimistic about everything and hopefully, nothing needs to be done. Just a little rest.''

The Jets' roster is full of veterans and free agents, which portends an offseason of turnover. But the second-year coach and second-year quarterback aren't going anywhere, which will ensure a degree of stability.

As he did back in training camp, Sanchez said he plans to continue solidifying his position as a leader and the on-field face of the franchise.

He noted the strides the offense took in achieving goals it set the day after last year's final game, including limiting turnovers and improving third-down and red-zone efficiency.

"We talked about getting a little bit better, and we did,'' he said. "We're right there. We're so close.''

Sanchez likely will have to go on without at least one of his two free-agent receivers, Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards, just as, he said, "We're as tight as we can possibly be right now.''

But that's business in the NFL. And so is this: A team without a quality quarterback cannot sustain success.

In the past four months, the Jets found themselves one. In the past three weeks, Sanchez felt it himself more than ever.

"I don't think I've been more focused in my life; I don't think I've been more prepared,'' he said. "I just felt good about the plan. I was seeing things before they happened.

"The game started to slow down. I felt great. I really did.''

It would have felt even greater to get the ball one last time on a frosty night in Pittsburgh.