Following the New York Jets most recent loss to the Miami Dolphins, fans now are directing their anger at Sam Darnold. It’s unwarranted and inappropriate.
The New York Jets have lost three games in a row to drop their record to 3-6. Sam Darnold was pretty dreadful in the loss to the Dolphins. He threw four interceptions and made poorer decisions than we have seen in any of his eight starts to date.
This is not debatable, but the reaction to this is debatable. The Jets have a lot of problems, this also isn’t in doubt. Many fans, however, are directing much of their anger at Sam Darnold.
Fans have written on Facebook that Teddy Bridgewater should be the starter. That one wasn’t a majority, but many have said that they are worried about Darnold as the starter. One commenter even lumped Darnold into the same category as Geno Smith and Mark Sanchez!
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The thought has even moved into the mainstream media, with Ralph Vacchiano suggesting that Darnold sits this week for Josh McCown.
Sorry folks, all of this hate, all of this anger, towards Darnold is unwarranted, unnecessary and incorrect. Time to stop this narrative in its tracks.
First of all, with all dure respect to Mr. Vacchiano, sitting Darnold won’t do a thing.
McCown is not going to change the bad snaps. Nor will he change the poor routes by the receivers. Nor will he stop the dropped passes.
The play around Darnold on offense over the last three weeks has been so bad that changing the quarterback won’t help.
If the offense was basically clicking? OK. But they aren’t, so benching Darnold is silly. Has it been done to rookie quarterbacks before that have become great? Sure it has. It’s still not the right idea in this particular case.
Now let’s talk about being “worried” about Sam. In a word, “stop”.
Spencer Long belongs on the bench. Every time Darnold lines up in the shotgun formation, the snap is an adventure. He threw off the timing on multiple plays on Sunday and played a factor in one of Darnold’s four interceptions.
Every time Darnold has to go low for a snap, or high, or two his sides, he has to take his eyes off of the defense. That is a problem that Sam Darnold can’t fix, folks.
The scary part is the backup, Jonotthan Harrison, is so bad that Todd Bowles wouldn’t even put him into the game until the final moments.
This would be a problem if Aaron Rodgers were under center.
The same goes for the wide receivers. Darnold has had to deal with injuries to his two top targets, Quincy Enunwa and Robby Anderson. The rest of the depth chart, aside from Christopher Herndon, doesn’t seem to like to run crisp routes.
The receivers are mailing them in and generally not getting any separation from defenders. What exactly would you have Darnold do, those of you that want him to sit? He can’t throw it down field and catch it.
We won’t even talk about Jermaine Kearse, the veteran, not being aware that he was out of bounds when he caught a pass from Darnold. Are you kidding me?
Now, as far as four interceptions goes, that’s OK too. Why? Because they aren’t looking at a playoff berth. They are looking at development. He needs to have these bad days in order to learn from them. This will help bring about the good days.
By the way, Darnold has thrown for multiple interceptions in four of his first nine starts. You know how many times Peyton Manning did it in his first nine starts? SEVEN! Did he turn out OK?
Stop “worrying” about Sam Darnold. He will be fine. Just leave him alone.