Jets’ Darnold to start vs. Bills, barring shoulder setbacks
NEWYORK(AP) » Sam Darnold is set to return as the New York Jets’ starting quarterback Sunday against the Buffalo Bills as long as he has no further complications with his injured shoulder.
Coach Adam Gase said Darnold, who was limited the previous two days, would be monitored at practice Friday to determine his playing status.
“Things are trending in the right direction,” Gase said. “Hopefully, barring any setbacks, we’ll get him going on Sundays — this Sunday.”
Darnold has missed the last two games with a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder suffered in New York’s loss to Denver on Oct. 1. He returned to finish that game, but has sat out since while Joe Flacco has started in his place.
If Darnold gets through
practice Friday with no issues, he’ll be under center against the Bills.
“We’ll roll, yeah,” Gase said. “He’ll be good.”
Despite being limited Wednesday and Thursday, Darnold was able to show the Jets enough progress in his recovery to make them optimistic about his chances of playing.
“He’s looked good,” Gase said. “It’s like one of those things where you don’t see anything that is alarming or looks different. I’m sure he doesn’t feel like he did in Game 1 of Week 1, but he’s not giving us any indications where I don’t see any lack of velocity. I haven’t seen him throw any balls where they either die or he couldn’t get the distance. I haven’t seen any of that.
“Everything looks normal.”
Darnold said Thursday hewas eager to get back on the field, but acknowledged there was still some pain in his shoulder at times — “but it’s nothing crazy. I feel like I’m capable of dealing with it.”
Gase said the team had to weigh that with what the doctors thought in order to make the best decision for Darnold and the Jets.
“It’s not really like I’m worried about him re-hurting his shoulder or anything,” the coach said. “It’s just more that he’s in pain. There’s a little bit of pain there for him that he’s not complaining about to the extent where it’s like we shouldn’t play him type of deal.
“He wants to play. That was the biggest decision we had tomake as a groupwas, is this the right thing to do? He wasn’t really looking to take no for an answer.”