Skidding Jets are happy to get QB Darnold back
East Rutherford, N.J. — Le'Veon Bell's huge smile said it all.
The New York Jets are getting quarterback Sam Darnold back under center this week, and the star running back was thrilled.
Just like everyone who coaches, plays or roots for the struggling team. But, especially Bell.
"Him getting back in the huddle and him just calling plays in practice, just hearing his voice and getting that normal cadence that everybody's normally used to hearing," Bell said, "it's like, Oh yeah, Sam's back. We ready.'
"Ain't nobody more excited than me. Not the coaches, not the fans — nobody. I'm ready for him to be back."
Darnold will make his first start since the season opener when he takes the field today at home against the Dallas Cowboys. The second-year quarterback missed the last three games while recovering from a bout with mononucleosis.
The Jets' offense has managed very little in Darnold's absence, especially in the last two games when New York combined for just 233 yards with Luke Falk — a former practice squad QB — starting those contests. Falk was released by the team on Saturday.
Bell has been an early-season workhorse for the Jets with 206 yards rushing on 71 carries and a team-leading 27 catches for 166 yards and a TD. But he's averaging just 2.9 COWBOYS AT JETS 4:25 p.m., MetLife Stadium (Ch. 3)
yards per rush.
"Any time your starting quarterback comes back, guys are going to be excited," coach Adam Gase said. "The good thing is, the way he looks at it is, he wants to come in and do his job. I don't think guys are looking at is, now that he's back, all will be all right. They know we have a lot to clean up."
The Jets (0-4) will try to get that done against Dak Prescott and the top-ranked offense of the Cowboys (3-2), who have lost two straight since three consecutive wins to open the season.
Prescott is facing the Jets for the first time in his career, and he's coming off a game against Green Bay in which he passed for a career-best 463 yards. But he also matched his career high by tossing three interceptions in the 34-24 loss and has at least one pick in four straight games — the longest streak in his three-plus seasons in the NFL.
None of that particularly concerns coach Jason Garrett.
"He's proven to be a very good decision maker over the course of his career," Garrett said. "Sometimes you can kind of put all those things and make a big generalization about something, (but) it's important to go back and look at what happened to each of those plays. He's certainly made a lot of little plays for us and a lot of big plays for us in the passing game over the first five weeks."