Brain child of Jets
Gang sez Sam is smart enough to earn Week 1 start
He has an indefinable quality that can’t be logged on a stat sheet or measured with numbers, something that makes him so tantalizing to so many people in this multi-billion-dollar organization.
He has an “It Factor” that few possess and fewer can fully explain. He also is destined to make a lot of mistakes that might ultimately help turn him into a star one day.
Sam Darnold’s capacity to process information over the next several weeks will shape his development during this critical phase of the Jets evaluation process. Whether or not the team hands him the keys to the kingdom in time for the Monday night season opener against the Lions on Sept. 10 will have much more to do with the rookie quarterback’s ability to prove his football I.Q. and resilience than to be perfect.
Darnold, frankly, was so good in only his second practice of camp after his four-day holdout.
He’s already operating on an advanced plane for a rookie, making smart pre-snap reads and post-snap decisions, while displaying fluid mobility in and around the pocket.
On Wednesday, he did everything from properly identifying a blitz to communicating the corresponding hot reads to his teammates to eluding pressure by stepping up in the pocket and completing a pass to hitting pass catchers in stride on designed rollouts to making quick postsnap decisions that prevented turnovers.
In layman’s terms, Darnold is one smart dude with a desire to learn more and more. The Jets should be very excited.
“I like watching how he deals with making mistakes and bouncing back,” general manager Mike Maccagnan said. “I know Todd (Bowles) and the coaches are very high on him … They’ve thrown a lot at him and he’s assimilated quite a bit. And I know Todd, in terms of practices, does a lot of things blitz-wise. So, it’s not always sort of scripted, where the offense knows what the defense is going to do. You watch Sam do things (when) maybe other times guys would play slower. He’ll have his little glitches, but I think he bounces back quick and plays faster than I’ve seen some other young quarterbacks play.”
That bounce-back ability will be critical if Darnold has a chance to be the team’s Week 1 starter. I’ve been told that the organization believes that he’ll seize the moment in training camp and preseason and win the Week 1 starting job. The brain trust doesn’t look at Darnold as a gardenvariety rookie who will resemble a deer in the headlights when the preseason rolls around.
Of course, the Jets aren’t naïve enough to believe that Darnold will morph into Aaron Rodgers in August, either. The kid’s going to make mistakes. If you’re expecting perfection in August, you’ll be disappointed.
There were plenty of telling sequences in Darnold’s second practice.
One time he stepped up in the pocket to elude pressure from Nathan Shepherd on his right side and completed a pass to the running back. There were moments when he dissected a blitz and relayed the hot-read intel at the line of scrimmage to teammates.
Darnold extracted something good after virtually every time something went bad. He was hit as he turned to the back side and released the ball in the face of duress off the edge. The pass intended for Chad Hansen fluttered in the air before it was intercepted by Mo Claiborne. Moments later, an unfazed Darnold was pressured again, hung in the pocket, and fired a beautiful 20-yard completion to Hansen on a post route.
“You want to limit your mistakes, but at the same time, if you do make a mistake, you don’t want to keep your head down,” said Darnold, who watched the first three practices on his iPad at a hotel about one minute away from the team facility during his four-day holdout.
“You want to hold your head up high and just go after the next play with all you got. That’s our mentality here. But that’s also been my mentality throughput playing football. That’s how I was taught at a young age to play football. If I make a mistake early on, just bounce right back and get after it the next play.”
Darnold’s rookie mistakes this month won’t necessarily preclude him from winning the starting gig. The Jets will evaluate him in a vacuum with this central question: Is the kid ready to be an NFL starter?
It’d be ridiculous to think that a rookie with a few months of practice experience (and no regular-season game experience) would turn into a better quarterback than a 15year veteran (Josh McCown) or a guy with playoff experience (Teddy Bridgewater) by September.
“He learns from mistakes,” Todd Bowles said of Darnold. “He’s a hard worker. He’s mentally tough. So, he grasps the situation and he moves on to the next play pretty good.”
Darnold has looked calm, cool and collected even after mistakes.
He has “an air about him” and “naturalness,” as Maccagnan put it, that makes the people who matter most in the organization believe that he will indeed show enough over the next month to vault to the top of the depth chart.
Darnold has miles to go before he sleeps, but eyewitnesses know that he’s a special young talent.
“I feel really comfortable,”
I like watching how he deals with making mistakes and bouncing back. JETS GM MIKE MACCAGNAN ON SAM DARNOLD
Darnold said. “At the same time, because I have really high expectations for myself, I got a ways to go in terms of growth. But I feel comfortable with the offense at a rudimentary level.”
“The competitor in me, yeah, I want to start,” he added. “But at the same time, it’s about the team and whatever is best for the team. If Coach Bowles or Coach Bates feel like Josh or Teddy or myself best fit for the starting job, that’s what it is. And the team can respect it. So, that’s how we roll.”
I’m not fitting Darnold for a gold jacket just yet, but his ability to quickly process information in the moment bodes well for his prospects to start sooner rather than later.
Late in practice, he threw a deep pass intended for Hansen that fell harmlessly too short near the goal-line that included four critical elements. Within seconds, Darnold correctly identified a blitz, failed to recognize that the protection already had him covered, properly identified the right throw to make and smartly made a last-second adjustment that resulted in an incompletion.
Here’s how he explained the play:
“I signaled a fade because I saw man (coverage),” Darnold said. “This is a part of the growth that I’m talking about. I thought they were bringing pressure. It turns out we were protected. So, I could have gone through another read. But I just gave Chad a nice little fade. I was trying to throw back shoulder. Last second right as I was throwing it, I saw the DB’s eyes look at me. So, I knew if I threw back shoulder, it would have been a pick. So I tried to in literally the last millisecond … just try to throw it out in front of him. It came out weird. Threw it at his feet. But it’s better than a pick. Throwing an incompletion.”
Although Darnold admitted that “it’s a huge challenge” to earn the Week 1 starting job, know this: The Jets brain trust believes that he will show them enough this month to be the Week 1 starter. Now, it’s up to the rookie to prove them right.
The Jets have a smart young quarterback with a desire to learn more every day.
“Competition,” Darnold said, “is awesome.”
CAMP NOTES
Wide receiver Quincy Enunwa headlined a list of players who missed Jets practice on Wednesday. Enunwa, who missed last season due to a neck injury that required surgery, was eased along in his comeback this spring. Todd Bowles said that Enunwa’s injury isn’t related to his neck, but wouldn’t give specifics beyond that . ... Cornerback Buster Skrine, who had a splint on his hand, missed practice because he “hurt his finger,” Bowles said. Tight end Jordan Leggett, who is competing for the starting job, also missed practice due to an undisclosed injury.