It’s not easy being green. Apparently, Sam Darnold doesn’t want to take the easy way out. On Monday, the Jets quarterback said that he wants to stay put. 
“I love it here…I love living here,” Darnold said (Twitter link via Connor Hughes of The Athletic) “I’ve always said I want to be a Jet for life, but that decision isn’t up to me. I believe in myself as a quarterback and a player in this league.”
Darnold would remain in New Jersey if he had his druthers, but, as he mentioned, he does not. The Jets lead the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes by a wide margin and it would be a surprise to see them draft anyone besides the Clemson star with the No. 1 overall pick.
Darnold — hardly grizzled at the age of 23 — has gone 11-24 as the Jets’ starting QB with 41 touchdowns and a near-equal 37 interceptions. He hasn’t been handed the best of situations, given the team’s constant chaos, coaching changes, and penny pinching, but the Jets may be done with him all the same.
Even though Darnold is saying the right things today, it’s hard to imagine the former No. 3 overall pick holding the clipboard for a younger, fresher face.
It would be the Jet’iest thing if they cut Sam, then he went to NE and beat them senseless year after year!
Anyone that does not see him in New England with at some point Robbie Andersen needs their head examined.
They do not lead for the #1 pick by a wide margin. Do any of the writers know sports anymore on this site? The Jets are one win away from moving to the #2 pick and JAX picking first. They came awfully close last week…
It’s going to funny when the Patriots tank week 16 against the Jets so they can keep Lawrence out of the division.
I see that 100%
You guys honestly believe a Bill Belichick coached team will tank against a division rival to keep potential quarterback out of their division? Do you hear how ridiculous that sounds?
Unfortunately for JAX, after Sunday’s showing from the Jets, it’s hard to see how the Jets could win any of their remaining games. As a Jets’ fan, I would love to go by the SNL skit “SportsMax” that mocked “NewsMax” and declared the Jets the winner in every game they scored first. “8 Million Jets’ fans can’t be wrong!” “I have 500 signed affidavits that we won that game!” LOL
That made no sense other than for you to try to make a political point by making it sound like it was sports related when it wasn’t.
Lighten up.
Good post actually. This is exactly what Trump is doing. He was leading before all votes were counted, therefore he declared himself the winner.
What’s really going to be funny is when the Jets land a “Kings Ransom” for the 1st pick. All this Lawerance talk will be for naught.
I like Darnold. I think he could do something with a offensive line to block for him and coach that is not bat nuts crazy. I would take Darnold in Detroit(they need oline help too)as a possible successor to Stafford.
Mark Sanchez: “If your an underachieving USC QB you really belong in the NFC East”.
His name is Captain Butt Fumble.
I watched Darnold play the Seahawks last weekend and came away impressed. He plays hard, and the game isn’t too big for him. He just has very little around him to work with. Gase is atrocious, and probably negatively impacting Darnold.
In the game, Sam threw a perfect deep ball to Crowder near the goal line. Seahawk Shaq Griffin clearly man-handled Crowder prior to the ball arriving. A clear-cut PI that should have put the ball around the 2-yd line, 1st and goal. The TV guys commented on it and I, a Seahawk fan, could clearly tell it was a penalty. Not a peep out of Gase. His 23 yr old QB is playing his tail off, makes a perfect throw, gets screwed by a bad call, and Gase is looking at his play sheet for the next call. Forget the score, how about defending your young QB? Be on his side. Show an ounce of passion. .. geez.
Darnold will succeed in this league… Gase not so much.
I agree that Darnold may be a good QB in this league, but I don’t think it will be with the Jets. I can’t imagine them trading down. Unless Lawrence doesn’t come out, they’ll draft him and leave him bereft of supporting talent just like Darnold. As another poster said, I could see Darnold with the Patriots and in the playoffs next year.
I don’t understand how gase has gotten to be a head coach this long. He has one winning record his first season ever as a head coach then he progressively got worse each year
It is surprising that he hasn’t been fired yet this year
If Darnold wants to stay then win some games to make sure they don’t get Lawrence
Good kid and maybe a good QB but trading 3 second round picks to move up three spots to take him killed the Jets That’s the depth they lack right there Should have taken whichever QB fell to them and had some weapons for him
It’s a foregone conclusion that Lawrence is a better prospect than Darnold was. It is not yet a foregone conclusion that he is a better NFL quarterback.
Lawrence, if ending up with the same Jets team that Darnold did, likely will never end up doing much more than Darnold himself could. Darnold, for that matter, could end up a better team and ultimately a better career than Lawrence does in New York.
There are two indisputable facts about this season that everyone knows-1: Trevor Lawrence is the most coveted player in the draft, and 2: the Jets are overall the worst team in the NFL. New York might do itself a better favor by trading down for an emperor’s ransom and set the stage better for either Darnold or its next quarterback and spending a single pick on a single player who may not even want to play for them, no matter how generational he is. A can’t-miss prospect can easily turn into an incredible draft bust if he’s left to flounder on his own, just like Darnold did. The cupboard is so bare in New York that it will take much more than one offseason just to set up their quarterback for success. And that’s WITHOUT considering the presumable introduction of a new coaching regime. This choice would be much easier if your team and culture weren’t so horrific, but that’s the situation currently. As good as the prospect of Lawrence seems to be, that’s just one area on your roster. You can turn that into numerous ones that could be fixed with this pick, and set yourself up the way that you wish you were today.
Your logic is hard to refute, but I still can’t get the Colts trading John Elway out of my head. There are first overall picks, and then there are transcendent generational picks…which are hard to pass up. The Jets need a lot, but the Jets haven’t had this potential type of Qb since Namath.
“the Jets lead the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes by a wide margin”?? The Jags have 1 win and are in need of a franchise QB as well… I wouldn’t call that a “wide margin”
Darnold would be a good fit for the Niners once Jimmy G is released. Jimmy doesn’t have much guaranteed money left after this season and I can see him going back to the Pats, with Cam moving onto the Bears or Jags
Peyton Manning stayed his senior year at Tennessee because the Jets has the #1 pick in 1997. I see Trevor Lawrence doing the same thing.