It has been a while since the New York Jets had a truly great talent under center. In recent years even, the best I guess we can say they’ve had is Mark Sanchez, and that was over a decade ago. But they’ve been spending the last 50+ years looking for one to help them to another Super Bowl.
Since then, they’ve had one failure after another. One of the more recent to not work out was Sam Darnold, whom they drafted No. 3 overall in 2018 and who spent three seasons with the team. And he has some thoughts on the real problem within the Jets organization and why they can’t seem to get decent quarterback play.
Sam Darnold sheds light on Jets struggles
When Darnold was drafted by the Jets in 2018, he was one of the top prospects out of USC. He gave the organization hope of finally finding a new franchise quarterback. Unfortunately for all parties involved, that didn’t happen. For each of his three years, they had three more losing seasons, the worst of which was his last, a 2-14 record.
Or so they thought…
But the struggles weren’t unique to Darnold. Zach Wilson came in after him and had the same problem. Even Aaron Rodgers couldn’t save them last season as they ended the disaster of a 2024 season at 5-12.
Reporters asked Darnold, who had a surprisingly impressive season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, for his thoughts on what’s really going on within the Jets organization that’s leading to this lack of success and instability at the quarterback position.
While he pointed out a myriad of different factors, Darnold said the main problem was a lack of support around the quarterback position in general.
“That’s a great question,” Darnold said. “It’s kind of what everyone’s trying to figure out. Franchises all over the NFL are still trying to figure it out and so to sit here and act like I know everything about it, I’m not going to pretend to do that. ButI think it’s definitely important to have good people and good players around the quarterback. Whether it’s the offensive line, running backs, receivers, or a good defense.”
“Having really good coaching is important as well. Having a good scheme. There’s so many different factors that go into it, especially when you have a young quarterback coming into the league. Especially now, I feel like college is so different from the NFL. I think that’s the biggest thing, just having a good support system.”
After a great season with the Vikings, Darnold is now taking his talents to Seattle where he’ll be the starting quarterback for the Seahawks in 2025. As for the Jets, they’ll be hoping to reach Justin Fields’ untapped potential this season.
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