New York Jets: Sam Darnold receives 2nd-worst PFF rookie grade
By Erik Lambert
When the season began, it looked and felt like the New York Jets got something truly special in USC quarterback Sam Darnold with the #3 pick.
Then reality began to set in. Already shouldered with an offense that is light on good players (and good coaching if we’re being honest), injuries soon began to make it ten times worse. For every great throw Darnold made, he’d end up having two that were outright bad. He looked like a rookie, and then to add one final injury to insult, he got hurt and has been relegated to the sideline.
While a lot of the mistakes he could’ve avoided, the fact is he hasn’t gotten a lot of help. The coaching staff hasn’t put him in the best position to succeed and their hands have been tied even further by injuries. It’s just one, big unfortunate situation. Still, that didn’t prevent Pro Football Focus from being hard on him for his season thus far. Darnold held their second-worst grade for 1st round rookies this year as of week 10.
"“As Darnold’s Week 6 game showed, the former USC signal-caller is more than capable of delivering exceptional performances under center, but unfortunately for Darnold, the bad performances are vastly outweighing the good ones right now. Darnold had his lowest-graded game to date against the Dolphins in Week 9, completing just 21-of-39 attempts for 229 yards, four interceptions and he threw an incredible six turnover-worthy passes on the afternoon. Darnold has thrown 17 turnover-worthy passes this season, four more than the next closest quarterback.”"
Jets may have to go the Rams-Bears route to correct this issue
One can imagine the Jets know what they have to do in 2019. They’re in the exact same position as others have been over the past couple of years. Teams like the Rams and Bears. They had a young quarterback they drafted high who came into a depleted roster with a defensive-minded coaching staff.
After bad rookie years, they revamped the coaching staff with a young offensive mind (Sean McVay and Matt Nagy) and spent a majority of their money and draft picks on reloading the offensive personnel with as much talent as possible. The Jets are expected to have over $100 million in cap space and likely will end up with a top 10 pick. So they’ll be in perfect position to do just that.
It comes down to whether GM Mike Maccagnan is the man tasked with executing the task or not. Les Snead and Ryan Pace were given that opportunity. One would think he gets the same, but then again the Jets have never been predictable.