WEDNESDAY: The Jets have confirmed Flacco will take the reins as their Week 5 starter, giving Darnold more time to return to full strength. Adam Gase tabbed Darnold as “week to week.”
TUESDAY: Although Sam Darnold returned to last week’s Jets-Broncos game after absorbing a violent sack, he may be forced to miss time for a third straight season.
The Jets are expected to hold their starting quarterback out against the Cardinals, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News tweets. Some in the organization view it as best to be cautious with Darnold’s AC joint sprain, even though the third-year passer finished last week’s game.
Despite only being cleared to play recently, Joe Flacco would be called upon to start against Arizona in this case. Flacco replaced Darnold after Alexander Johnson slammed the Jets starter to the turf Thursday, but Darnold re-entered the game soon after. Flacco spent the past several months rehabbing from neck surgery.
Darnold has been spotty this season, ranking 27th in Total QBR, though the Jets have been without much of his already shaky skill-position group to start the campaign. Should the USC alum be held out of Sunday’s game, it would be his seventh missed start as a pro. The 2018 No. 3 overall pick missed three games as a rookie because of a foot sprain and was out due to mononucleosis early last season. Darnold played through an AC joint sprain in his left shoulder in high school, per Mehta, but damage to his throwing shoulder is obviously a bit different.
With the Jets’ 0-4 start having placed them as a candidate to land the 2021 No. 1 pick — widely expected to be Clemson prospect Trevor Lawrence — Darnold’s season may take on greater importance. But it might well be paused for a bit.
If the Jets get the top pick they should trade it for the biggest haul ever. Sam is OK and will be better with the players they will get from the draft This will make the team better long term. Don’t get me wrong there is a Grand Canyon between Darnold and Lawrence but with the top picks they get should even that out. The only problem is they will probably screw the draft up. Forget what I said they should pick Lawrence and hope they can do something in 5 years because they will be looking again.
As a lifelong Jets fan, your comment took me on a journey from “I disagree with this” to “I agree with this” to “Sigh, yeah, that’s why none of it matters.”
I had the same reaction.
If they get the top pic they will trade Sam and take Lawrence. Sam is not the guy he thought he was going to be not only that but the general manager is not the guy who drafted Sam.
compassrose Keeping Gase to be Tank Commander only makes sense if they’re going for Lawrence. Not worth letting Gase do further damage to Darnold’s development because a coach who isn’t so incompetent just might squeak out a win or two more then Gase, unless they want T Law.
I think they should trade down a couple spots and grab Ja’Marr Chase. Putting Lawrence in the same position as Darnold will not be a good thing for his development. If you give Sam a weapon like Chase, he can show what kind of talent he has.
What if the answer is the talent is only OK? Or really good one out of three games, pretty good sometimes, and a disaster sometimes? He’s been put in a position to fail, but he also just might be an impressive but erratic talent. If you think Lawrence is a transcendent talent, you have to take him. Especially when you’re not the GM who took Darnold.
There’s no way this isn’t a bit messy, but you can’t let old choices cloud new ones when it comes to the single biggest variable in the organization’s future.
This idea mostly makes sense if Adam Gase is the beneficiary of Joe Flacco’s life insurance.
Flacco time! Will prove that Darnold is not the problem.
Anyone who blames Darnold for his current career production needs to spend a little time looking at recent history of the Jets organization.
I don’t blame Darnold for his current situation and think one of the worst things here is that there’s been no way to evaluate him given his circumstances. But that makes him a question mark going into his fourth year. If Lawrence is an option, I take that over the question mark, even if it’s not Darnold’s fault he’s still such an unknown.
Jets better hope that Lawrence doesn’t pull a Manning and stay in school.
So sick of everyone making excuses for this kid. If it’s not his receivers it’s his offense of line it’s not the line it’s the head coach the next will be the offensive coordinator how long before everyone just realizes he is a draft bust. Many young quarterbacks right now are succeeding and they have even less than what Sam has. The great ones take a bad situation and thrive in it Sam has not done that and his same weaknesses he had in college or still coming throw in the pros.
Name a young QB who’s currently succeeding with less than Darnold.
You are correct, Oof, but taking Lawrence and throwing him into the fire is repeating the exact same mistake that the Jets made with Darnold.
Darnold is likely salvageable, as he did and still does have great talent and potential, but a complete and utter organizational lack of support is what has hindered his career. I do think that it has done permanent damage by lowering his potential ceiling, but Gase does not seem interested even in the least in giving a proper NFL training and he certainly does not have adequate protection or weapons. Lawrence seems to be a transcendent talent, but putting him in the same situation as Darnold in lieu of getting a huge haul of picks that could help your current starter seems less helpful than the alternative. Firing Gase and filling in the team’s holes to help Darnold I think will get you further than pairing a rookie QB with an unproven coach (or worse, a retained Adam Gase) on a barren team.
In fairness, Douglas has only had one offseason. Lawrence would be coming in along with another first round pick and an extra third round pick. Becton already looks better than anything they’ve had on their line since Ferguson and Mangold left, provided Gase doesn’t wreck him. Plus Bell would be gone, which would add to an already nice amount of cap space to bring in some solid players (as opposed to the big money flashy moves that McCagnan used to try to save his job). And one would hope that whoever replaces Gase would have actual development and scheming skills.
I do agree with all of that analysis, Oof. The problem, as it has been, the coaching. I think we agree there. Douglas…well, it’s too early to tell, but I have cautious optimism that he will make the right moves. Unfortunately he has a lot of work to do in deciding what/who to retain and how to do so while not overspending/overcommiting to resources that might not be effective when the Jets are finally at the point Douglas wants them to be.
Joe has a 62.6 passer rating when playing at Met Stadium so this should workout just fine.
There is a difference between an Trevor Lawrence an Sam Darnold. Trevor is a can’t miss slam dunk selection while everyone you Sam was a work in progress just did not think in year three he would be making the same mistakes he did in year one.
Agreed…..Lawrence seems to be a generational QB talent….one that can elevate the players around him which Darnold isn’t!
Not a Jets fan, but please pass on him if the Jets get the 1st pick with the Giants sitting at #2 because I would say the same thing as far as what the Giants should do…grab him and don’t look back….dump Jones and move on to Lawrence.
Everything…literally everything starts with the right QB and Darnold isn’t the guy and neither does Jones seem to be too!
There are a lot of QBs that look generational when they come out. It really matters what the organization does with them, like any other player. Don’t make the same mistake so many organizations do by thinking that just drafting the messiah will suddenly undo any mistakes they may have made on the way.