Most NFL rookies spend their first offseason as a professional doing things like signing contracts, getting in NFL shape, learning the playbook, and doing everything they can to earn the respect of their coaches and teammates. It’s a busy time, and the choices a rookie makes now help set the stage for either success or failure in their career.

One thing that doesn’t necessarily help the process is getting dressed up like David Hasselhoff in “Baywatch” and prancing around with a sexy supermodel for GQ photographers. Yet that’s exactly what new Jets QB Mark “Walking Sex” Sanchez did, and you can bet his teammates are going to have fun with this. The evidence is yours, after the jump.

(Click on the pics for larger versions.)

To add insult to sexy, sexy injury, the writeup by the NEW YORK POST’s Mandy Stadtmiller is sure to be used as ammo by prankster teammates, complete with an odd reference to Sanchez as an, um, “eligible receiver”:

Only 22 years old, the Latino hottie is bona fide cougar bait as he prances around in a “Baywatch”-style spread in the new June issue of GQ. The racy pictorial features the young star romping around topless, in swim trunks and ever so gently (yet firmly!) grasping one lucky lady.

The POST goes on to link Sanchez’s sexy snapshots to similar photo shoots done by dreamboat QB Tom Brady. One minor difference between the two photogenic QBs: Brady earned his credibility after, y’know, winning a couple of Super Bowls. Mark Sanchez hasn’t even taken an NFL snap, and he’s making magazine covers. Talk about putting the cart before the attention whore horse.

(Eat your heart out, Hof!)

But if you think this is bad, get a load of what Sanchez’s handlers have in store for him:

“Obviously, he’s looking to do some deals, and he’s probably going to get them,” [PR rep Kelly] Cutrone says. “But it’s hard to make it as an athlete who is a household name. We’re lucky if we know two or three.”

Yes, Kelly. And what do those QBs all have in common? They win football games, something young Sanchez hasn’t yet done. Last time the Jets had a quarterback more concerned with fashion than football, Joe Namath led his team to victory in Super Bowl III.

If Sanchez can’t back up the hype come football season, the notoriously fickle coverage of NYC’s largest tabloid change from fashion icon to failure faster than you can say “Matt Leinart.”

*UPDATE*: More photos of Hilary Rhoda, Sanchez’s GQ shoot co-star: