Jets quarterback Sam Darnold could use a restart more than anyone right now.
With the Jets being the prime favorite to win the Trevor Lawrence draft, their current quarterback will be on the move this offseason. There is no way they can bring him back after three miserable seasons here. A divorce serves in the best interest of both parties.
Darnold still wants to show teams that he can still play the position. He may not get the chance. For the second straight game, he will miss the game with a shoulder sprain. One has to wonder if the Jets saw the last of Darnold this season.
The offense functions much better with Joe Flacco, and the Jets don’t want to risk injury to their starting quarterback to the point he becomes damaged goods. They want to trade him, so playing him could increase his chance to aggravated his shoulder.
If this turns out Darnold played his last game as a Jet, it would be a sad ending. It already is no matter what, but for him not to play the rest of the season would be a blow to him. He may not get a chance to lead the Jets to a victory, and he may not get to finish off on a strong note on his way out of town.
No one ever imagined it would end up like this for him and the Jets.
Darnold envisioned leading the Jets to the playoffs and championships like any ambitious quarterback. The Jets thought they found their next Joe Namath. Jets fans thought he would play like a dynamic quarterback from watching his USC highlight reel.
Instead, it turned out to be a nightmare for him and the team.
Maybe we all should saw it coming. The Jets turn out to be a graveyard for prospects, especially quarterbacks. College quarterbacks tend to fizzle and be burned out after being hyped up as the next Namath. This franchise experienced a hard time developing players, which explains why all their picks turn out to be the bust these last 10 years.
This should make Lawrence think twice about playing for the Jets. If he stays in school next season, this won’t be his problem. He may just stay at Clemson, and no one can blame him after watching Mark Sanchez and Darnold could not deal with the burden of making the Jets great as Jets quarterbacks.
Lawrence does not need New York to make him a star. With the NFL being popular in America, he can play for any team in any town and be a star. He does not need the headache of transforming this sorry Jets franchise.
Besides, the Jets will need more than him for this franchise to turn it around. They need to find an offensive line, defensive line, a running back, and a couple of wide receivers. As Darnold found out, he could not do anything by himself, which the Jets expected him to do.
This won’t be Darnold’s problem anymore. For him, this can be a good thing. He knows he will be deemed a failure, but that’s more on the Jets for failing him than he failing the team. This organization failed to give him a game-changing wide receiver or an offensive line to protect him in his time here.
Darnold can only do so much. His problem is more about him being injury-prone than his competency at playing the quarterback. We saw what he could do. In his first game back from mononucleosis last season, he threw for two touchdowns with 338 yards while completing 23 of 32 passes in the Jets’ 24-22 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
This likely was his best moment as a Jets along with his first game as a Jets quarterback when he engineered a Jets’ 48-17 victory over the Detroit Lions by throwing two touchdowns.
Obviously, those games don’t turn out to be signature moments for the likely lame duck Jets quarterback. He and the Jets expected more than that.
Now, it likely won’t happen.
For Darnold, the losing and incompetence of the Jets got to him. For the Jets, they need to start over with a new quarterback once again since the damage is done.
It’s just too bad it has to end that way. Darnold started his Jets career by throwing a Pick 6 in his first throw and now he may have finished his career by being sidelined by a shoulder injury.
It’s just another Jets luck, and Darnold becomes another victim of it.
