New York Jets: Sam Darnold must start when he returns to full health

Most realize this, but when New York Jets quarterback Sam  Darnold is completely healthy, he absolutely must return to his starting position.

The New York Jets are in the midst of Patriots week. The schedule makers put the season series late this year, so the Jets are facing New England on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium.

Tom Brady and company are, like the Jets, coming off of the bye week. One week prior, the Patriots fell by a 34-10 score to the Titans.

Then we have the injury situation involving the starting quarterback:

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So, the Patriots enter the game annoyed by taking a bad loss in their previous game. They are also rested, coming off of the week off. They come to New York to face the backup quarterback.

What could go wrong?

Therefore, instead of talking about the three players to watch this week, we are going elsewhere.

I mean, there are a lot more than three players to watch on the Patriots.

Instead we are going to talk about a narrative that has started to creep into the conversation ever since Sam Darnold suffered his injury.

Our friend Luis Tirado, expert at our exclusive site The Jet Press wrote an article outlining why they should shut Darnold down the rest of the way.

Here is Tirado’s biggest point:

"It’s not worth having Darnold continue to play and have him continue to run for his life or rush his passes due to the severe lack of talent around him. The Jets offense is an absolute joke and offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates will still be calling plays."

With all due respect to my friend, this is a short-sighted look at the situation. Leaving Darnold on the bench is not in the best interest of the player or the team.

Why you ask? Let’s discuss.

Luis is absolutely right about the offense. They aren’t any good. The playcaller stinks and he has no weapons. That is very accurate.

What changes about that if if Darnold sits? So Josh McCown plays. He’s not any safer behind that offensive line. He isn’t going to complete 70% of his passes with these weapons. The plays aren’t going to improve.

Instead Sam Darnold sits and watches McCown struggle, which teaches him absolutely nothing. That is what we call a waste of time.

As we talked about during training camp, it’s not as if Josh McCown is such a special veteran quarterback that Darnold will learn valuable lessons from him over the last six games.

He needs reps, period. He needs to take snaps and read defenses.

If he isn’t healthy for Sunday’s game, fine. Play McCown. Once he his healthy, Darnold must return to his role as the starter. Unless of course, Todd Bowles is trying to make himself look worse than he has.

Think about it like this. If watching McCown was any sort of priority, they wouldn’t have basically handed the job to Darnold. That’s what they did, because playing is what he needs to be doing.

As long as he is healthy, that hasn’t changed.