New Couple Alert: Hayden Panettiere and Mark Sanchez

Mark Sanchez has guided the New York Jets to back-to-back AFC Conference Championship Games. But questions remain about the quarterback's decision-making.

Both on and off the field, apparently.

Cameras captured Sanchez with Hayden Panettiere last week, as Rumor Fix reports they entered a hamburger restaurant together and left smiling.

"They seemed very close and very happy," a witness says, although someone close to Panettiere claims the two are, you guessed it, "just friends."

Hayden Panettiere split with boxer Wladimir Klitschko earlier this month, while Sanchez has enjoyed his run as a bachelor in NYC. He's been linked with Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Lindsay McCormick, among others.