THREE AND CLEAR
THIRD SEASON SHOULD REVEAL DARNOLD’S TRUE FUTURE
THE EVALUATION of Sam Darnold through his first 25 games is a difficult one.
The 22-year-old has been on bad teams with bad offensive lines and no elite skill players around him. He has had to learn two different offenses in two seasons and has missed six games to injury or illness.
All of that has clouded what we’ve seen from Darnold and made it hard to know exactly what the Jets have in the quarterback they drafted No. 3 overall in 2018.
It is clear Darnold can be a good quarterback in the NFL. No one should question that. But can he be the elite, championship-level quarterback every fan base hopes for? That remains to be seen.
But let’s hope that in 2020, we can evaluate Darnold on his play, and not have to account for the other variables that make it hard to know how good he actually is. It is not news that general manager Joe Douglas needs to reshape this offensive line. The Bills found four new starters in the offseason to help their young quarterback, Josh Allen. Douglas may have to do the same. Robby Anderson has shown massive improvement in the past two months of the season, but the Jets need to add to the receivers room either in free agency or the draft.
If the Jets can build an offense around Darnold, then we will have a better idea of how good he can be.
It can’t all be on Douglas, though. Darnold needs to show he can elevate the play of those around him in his third season. That is what the best quarterbacks do. It is the step Mark Sanchez failed to take in his third season, when the Jets put more on his shoulders.
Darnold also needs to show improved footwork and more consistency. Every week, Darnold makes a few throws that show how skilled he is and a few others that make you shake your head. These are the usual growing pains of a young quarterback and are not cause for alarm, but they will be if the good moments don’t increase and the bad ones don’t decrease.
“I think it [happens] over time, but I’m not thinking like five years,” head coach Adam Gase said about Darnold’s consistency. “I think the way that he’s accelerated, it’s been pretty quick, I feel like. I feel like things are clicking for him. He understands more and more every day. Every time we go out to practice, there’s something different that he does, whether it be at the line of scrimmage, in the huddle, the questions he asks that you feel really good about kind of where his mind is.”
Gase is a key to this, too. Darnold should benefit from having the same voice in his ear this offseason. Darnold has been in three systems in three years, when you include his final year at USC. That means starting from scratch every January. This year, he won’t have to learn a new offense, only improve in it.
The signs of improvement are already there.
Since Darnold and Gase met after the Jaguars game in October to streamline the offense, the quarterback has been better. In his past eight games, he has thrown for 13 touchdowns, four interceptions, has had two rushing touchdowns and has a QB rating of 94.5. In his first four games of the year, he had five touchdowns, eight interceptions and a rating of 66.2.
Darnold has not made the massive Year 2 leap people hoped for, but he has been better than in his rookie season. His completion percentage is up (61.7 this year, 57.7 last year), he has thrown more touchdown passes in one fewer game (18, 17) and has had fewer interceptions (12, 15). His QB rating is 85.1 this season and was 77.6 last year. His passing yards per game are up to 235.4 after an average of 220.4 last year.
This will be another huge offseason — not just for Darnold, but also for Gase and Douglas — to make sure next season provides more answers about Darnold and not more questions.