SAM’S TIME
With Brady leaving for Bucs, Darnold can take over as East’s top QB
Tom Brady’s departure from the AFC East has left a new man standing on the quarterback mountaintop in the division: Sam Darnold. The Jets third-year signal caller is hardly Brady, but he is the best pigskin slinger in the AFC East now. While Bills Mafia will wax poetic about Josh Allen, the stark truth is that people in the know realize that Darnold has a higher ceiling than any quarterback currently in the division.
The AFC East quarterback rankings: 1) Darnold, 2) Allen 3) Ryan Fitzpatrick 4) Jarrett Stidham
Fitzpatrick is a more polished product than anyone, but he’s expected to be a bridge option if/when he re-signs with the Dolphins. The Patriots will presumably sign a veteran in the coming days unless they’re feeling adventurous with Stidham, whose signature rookie moment was watching Jamal Adams return his errant pass to the house for a pick-six.
It’s slim pickings these days in a division dominated by Brady for two decades. His presence made the AFC quarterback conversation moot for so long. The stage now belongs to Darnold and Allen, pals and rivals.
Allen, who led the Bills to the playoffs last season, has enjoyed more team success. Buffalo is building in a smart, efficient and relative fast manner by supplying Allen with better protection up front and skill-position weapons. He’s currently in a better environment with a respected head coach, smart general manager and stable ownership.
Darnold, frankly, is the better pure quarterback.
Although Allen has had some terrific moments in his first two seasons, flashing big plays with his legs, he’s going to have get much better as a passer. There’s no denying that Allen made important steps in that direction in 2019, but there’s still a mountain of improvement that must occur for him to be a viable franchise quarterback.
Darnold is far from a finished product, but he has shown enough encouraging moments as a passer to give the Jets a true belief that he will have long-term viability. You don’t need to break down countless hours of tape to see that there’s something special inside Darnold, who has the gifts to be a difference maker. But is a true breakout coming in his third season?
“I think he’ll have the opportunity if he keeps doing what he’s been doing,” Adam Gase said at the Scouting Combine last month. “As far as what I saw last year from spring to training camp through the season, being able to overcome some of the adversity that he had. I’m really encouraged by where he can go from here.”
“I think he has, obviously,
the skill set,” Gase continued. “When you guys see him throw the ball in practice and in training camp and during the games, some of the throws that he makes, it’s one of those things where you just shake your head like, ‘How did he make that throw?’ It’s just really going to be about consistency, game in and game out. Can he be the same guy every game? I think that’s something he’s always going to work on and hopefully we can get him there this year.”
Truth be told, Darnold should have made a larger leap in his second season. Although he made incremental improvement, there’s a sense in league circles that he won’t truly make that big jump to game changer under Gase.
It’s a fair concern given that Gase has never turned any quarterback into a star. Ryan Tannehill’s dramatic improvement that earned him Comeback Player or the Year after leaving Gase provided further fuel to the mercurial coach’s critics.