Joe Douglas didn’t take the Sam Darnold trade lightly, and the Jets GM acknowledged how difficult it was telling the quarterback that he had been traded to the Panthers.
“[T]he swallow-hard moment for me was just making that call to Sam,” Douglas told SI’s Albert Breer. “You know how much work and dedication he’s put in the last three years here, how many rough situations he’s been through, and never wavered with his confidence. Still, when we had the call, I know in his heart of hearts that he feels he was the right guy to turn this franchise around. I just have so much admiration for how he carries himself.”
During the interview with Breer, Douglas revealed that the front office took their time determining how to proceed at quarterback. While the team would have normally completed their scouting much earlier in the offseason, they didn’t get a chance to see the top quarterback prospects in person until late March. Eventually, the organization decided that they’d feel comfortable taking a signal-caller with the No. 2 pick.
“I don’t know how every team approaches a quarterback [evaluation], but I’ve always thought it was a golden rule—you don’t ever take a quarterback until you stand near or next to a guy and watch him throw the football,” Douglas said. “None of the top brass were able to get out to a BYU game this year. There were no all-star games, no combine. You could see Mac Jones at the Senior Bowl. But other than that, your only opportunity to stand there and watch them throw was at a pro day.”
We explored some of the GM’s other soundbites earlier tonight, including the fact that the Jets had a competitive offer for Darnold earlier in the offseason.
Some more notes out of New York:
- Joseph Person and Connor Hughes of The Athletic provided a detailed timeline of the Darnold trade, dating back to Jets season-ending loss to the Patriots in early January. Among the notable revelations from the article was the fact that the Panthers starting offer for the quarterback was a fourth-round pick, while the Jets were initially requesting a first-rounder (even if it was conditional). Douglas considered holding out until after the draft in pursuit of that first, but he ultimately decided to avoid the risk of the Panthers pivoting to a rookie or another veteran quarterback.
- BYU quarterback Zach Wilson is the favorite to be selected second overall by the Jets. Wilson underwent shoulder surgery back in 2019, but NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets that the team continues to have no concern about the shoulder, especially after they got positive news from a recent physical. Based on advice from “trusted medical sources,” the organization has “zero issues about Wilson’s shoulder,” per RapSheet.
- The 2020 sixth-round pick that the Panthers sent to the Jets in the Darnold trade is a compensatory selection, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini (on Twitter). That pick comes in at No. 226 overall.
- We learned earlier tonight that the Jets re-signed cornerback Bennett Jackson. The 2014 sixth-rounder didn’t appear in a regular season game until the 2019 season, when he appeared in six games with the Jets and Ravens. He appeared in four games this past season for New York, collecting a single tackle.
The Jets’ problem is this: no matter who you put behind center, the front office and ownership hasn’t managed to put together even a playoff-caliber roster in over a decade. There are just too many holes to fill on both sides of the ball. Swapping Gase for Saleh is a start, but expecting any of Wilson, Fields, Jones, or even Lawrence to lead that squad to the playoffs in just 3 years is absolutely unreasonable. I have very little confidence that the Jets’ new QB will do much better than Darnold has done in terms of overall team success…
Ok that’s been the narrative but now they have a competent GM. Let’s come up with some original material
So, the narrative should change based upon the expectation that it will or might change, rather than it actually changing?
Yes, because it’s stupid to judge someone on their job (who is making the right moves) and lump them together with people who do things completely different. Douglas is the anti-Maccagnan.
Not True!
Seems like the excuse making by the Jets fans are already starting. Darnold is the same turnover machine he was at USC.
Baker Mayfield walked into a worse situation and turned the browns around.
Darnold has never made any of his teammates better. He never will
Only an idiot GM would draft a prospect with the expectation that the kid is going to make teammates better. That is the job of the coaching staff.
Are really that clueless?
Cleveland got him a much better supporting cast (and coach) sooner
The jets brass should have stuck with Darnold. The guys on the field believed in him.
I think this offseason really illustrates to what levels teams will spend for a QB.
1) Stafford has never won a division title let alone a playoff game; 2 1st’s.
2) Darnold is OK; 3 picks.
3) 9’ers trading multiple picks for one.
4) Both Wilson and Watson (prior to the charges) asking prices were 3 1st’s and players! At least they are good-great QB’s.
Also DC hoping/pryaing a 38 year old journey man QB (for $10m) is finally their answer as well.
To be fair, 10 mil is cheap for a starting QB.
Fitz is more of a bridge than a long term answer, anyway.
Darnold’s faults were well known before he was drafted. Unfortunately the Jets are so broken they were incapable of putting capable players or coaches around him to minimize those faults, as the Jets’ receiving corps consists solely of cast-offs and rejects from other teams. Their new quarterback will thus face the exact same problem, so you should expect a similar outcome.
The team right now is way better than what Darnold walked into in 2018. Plus I trust Joe Douglas drafting much more than Maccagnan
Wrong. Sam couldn’t read defenses in colleges and still couldn’t in NFL can’t teach dumb. What a fleece of a trade for trash.. Good job Joe
They gave Sam both Breshad Permian and Jamison Crowder, that wasn’t enough?
Darnold had to be elated when that call came in. Defensive coach who threw away a SuperBowl win when his team couldn’t play defense, and then somehow woo’d the press into making them believe he was the next coming of Lombardi. A clueless owner who let a clueless GM hire him. Yea I imagine Darnold didn’t have a “ hard to swallow moment” on that call. They won’t win 5 games. Same old Jets,Jets,Clowns.
Mark “Sanchize”
Sam Darnold
See a pattern here?
To borrow from Shakespeare…Jets fan hype up their players by “bringing all the sound and fury, but it signifies nothing.”