FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Pressure? What pressure?

All Mark Sanchez faces as the new face of the New York Jets is the burden of leading the roller-coaster franchise to its first Super Bowl since Joe Namath led it to the NFL title 40 years ago.

That’s all. Not much to ask. Just be the next Namath.

The Jets drafted Sanchez as much for his moxie and charisma and “it” factor as they did for his ability to throw the football.

Without as much as a preseason down having been played, Sanchez has New York in the proverbial palm of his hand.

“It takes a person with a certain confidence to play in New York,” Jets head coach Rex Ryan said. “I don’t think he’s afraid of the big stage at all.”

Sanchez has already shown that he’s not afraid at all. See his steamy GQ Magazine photo spread with bikini-clad Estee Lauder model Hilary Rhoda, whom he’s now reportedly dating.

When the photo spread, which was shot before the NFL draft, hit the newsstands, Sanchez was the subject of some unmerciful razzing from his Jets teammates at practices.

The photos were plastered on walls all over the Jets’ Florham Park, N.J., training facility and they were even burned onto computer screen savers in the meeting rooms. Teammates have been calling him David Hasselhoff, of “Baywatch” TV fame.

“He probably wishes he’d never done it, right now,” Ryan joked. “They’re having a good time with him.”

“This team will get on you for anything, man,” OLB Calvin Pace said. “You let your guard down and they catch you in a compromising position — you’ll be jumped constantly.”

“We let him know that that stuff might fly on the West Coast, but …” OL Damien Woody said.

Pace said Sanchez “has been pretty good” about taking the razzing, adding, “He’s got thick skin and that’s good for a quarterback.” Sanchez said he has no regrets.

“That was almost like one of those bucket-list kind of deals,” Sanchez said. “You’re going to do a photo shoot with a supermodel. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It’s one of those things you’ve got to do.”

The Sanchez photo shoot and the attention it grabbed led some armchair critics to wonder whether he was spreading himself too thin with off-the-field activities. If you listen to Sanchez, you realize how serious he is about being an NFL success, and if you talk to those around him, you get the idea that football is first for him.

“I think if you ask anybody in the building, they know what I’m all about,” Sanchez said. “People are going to get their own perceptions and think what they may, but this team drafted me to play football and that is my mindset. I’m all about football now.”

The next set of critics wonder whether Sanchez’s mere 16 starts in college were enough to prepare him for the NFL.

“We wouldn’t have traded up for Mark if we didn’t think he had the ability to compete for the starting position,” Ryan said. “We’ve looked at everything known to man. Eventually it comes down to the individual. I think we saw that last year in Baltimore, a Division I transfer, Joe Flacco. I don’t have to look further than him.”

Sanchez offered his own example of a successful NFL quarterback who wasn’t a three-year starter in big-time college football.

“I’d first bring up Matt Cassel (who had a stellar season with the Patriots last season replacing the injured Tom Brady), who didn’t start at all at USC and didn’t even start since high school, and look what he’s doing; he’s doing well for himself,” Sanchez said.

“All the guys that I’ve competed against on a daily basis (in college) have prepared me for this next step,” he went on. “Los Angeles is in a large media market, so I know how to handle the interviews and conference calls, like this, and television interviews. That’s what this position is all about, and it is expected at USC.

“To be able to perform there under such scrutiny and pressure, with Heisman Trophy winners ahead of you and national championship implications in every game, it’s obvious I was ready for that. Also, playing in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State and against the best competition has prepared me for this next step, and the 16 games have been a lifetime of situations in terms of football. I’m ready.”

It took little time for Sanchez to show his leadership. The night before rookie minicamp, he gathered the offensive players together for a playbook study session so they’d be extra-prepared for the next day’s practice.

He, too, called the Jets’ veteran receivers and asked them to get together with him for a throwing session.

“It goes to show you the leadership ability that he has,” Jets top WR Jerricho Cotchery said.

Sanchez, too, has immense marketability — surely something not lost on the marketing-conscious Jets, who are about to move into a new stadium in 2010 with personal seat licenses to sell in a sagging economy.

The Jets insist, though, that they’re not rushing Sanchez into off-field activities — not wanting to put the cart before the horse.

“His coming on board has created a lot of energy and excitement — and that’s great — but when we take a step back, we don’t want to create any distractions for him,” Matt Higgins, the Jets’ vice president of business operations, said. “We want him to learn his craft. Most of the conversations we’ve had aren’t about opportunities we need to explore, but how to manage the attention.

“We’re not plotting anything. It’s more about giving him the space he needs. If it’s going to happen, it will happen organically and naturally.”

Sanchez is improving exponentially, thanks to the crash course he’s been getting in OTA sessions against Ryan’s aggressive and complex defense.

“We’re throwing it all at him,” Ryan said. “He’s probably seeing defenses he’s never seen. They’re throwing him right to the wolves, and I like the way he’s responding.”

Sanchez’s hunger to soak it all in is also going to allow him to grow quickly.

“I’m here late every night,” he said. “I’m getting to know the clean-up crew. That’s what I do. This is what I want to know. It’s a grind and I love it. I’m getting there, and I want to master it by tomorrow. I want to master it 10 minutes ago. I’m already late, that’s how I feel. I’ll keep working and getting better.”

This kind of attitude, of course, is what has the Jets so excited about their future.

“I’m an excitable young man and I’m ready for a challenge and I’m always smiling,” Sanchez said. “That kind of pressure, you expect that as a quarterback; it’s what you signed up for; and, you know, I learned how to compete and deal with pressure at USC.”

Sanchez would, however, not offer any Namath-like guarantees.

“I can’t promise we’re going to win the division or win the Super Bowl, and that I’m going to be the MVP of the league,” he said. “All I can promise is that I’m going to work hard.”

Namath tried not to lay too many expectations on Sanchez, emphasizing that it’ll take more than Sanchez to lead the Jets back to the Promised Land.

“As recent history shows, both Atlanta (with Matt Ryan) and Baltimore (with Flacco), if you have a good team, a young man can take control and steer it in the right direction,” Namath said. “But it depends on the team how well Mark is going to perform. We’re all going to judge him on how he practices and what he does on a daily basis.

“All of us are pulling for him. I’m a fan. There are a lot of Jets fans that have been backing the team struggling for a while, and we’d like to see a win. I’d like to see us win a championship this season.”

Pressure? What pressure?

Mark Cannizzaro covers the Jets for the New York Post.