The New York Jets Should Stick with Sam Darnold

Author: Patrick Sullivan

As of today, December 27, 2020, the New York Jets have miraculously won two consecutive games to end up 2-13 on the season. The Jets will now officially have the number two pick in the 2021 NFL Draft as the Trevor Lawrence dream has come to an end. As some fans wither away in despair and scream out loud “It’s the Same Old Jets”, I am optimistic for the future of this franchise. My optimism is solely based off the Jets GM Joe Douglas.

Thus far, Douglas has shown a lot of promise as GM of this franchise as his rookies are seemingly panning out, the Jamal Adams trade is looking smarter as the season progresses, and the fact that he saved a lot of cap space for this upcoming off season. Douglas will have all of this cap space and a haul of draft picks to attempt to save this pitiful franchise that I’ve sadly been a fan of for 19 years. However, in the end, this next head coaching hire will decide his fate and the fate of the near future of the Jets. Even if he uses the cap space and draft capital to acquire great players, if the coaching staff is awful, there’s no hope for the success the Jets fans have been craving for the past 10 years.

Even with all the hope Douglas provides, his biggest decision outside of hiring a head coach is what to do at number 2 in the draft. Does he draft the next best quarterback after Lawrence? Should he trade back for even more picks or would it be better to pick the best overall player that is not a QB? The latter two options will have to involve Sam Darnold at QB. If the Jets don’t go with a QB at number two overall, Douglas is basically putting his faith in Darnold to make a giant turnaround in his career. Personally, I believe that since the Jets have won themselves out of Trevor Lawrence, Sam Darnold is the next best option. But many are going to say but why? What has Sam Darnold done to deserve this?

Let’s take a trip down memory lane, the last four weeks of the 2018 season with Todd Bowles as head coach and Jeremy Bates as offensive coordinator, Sam Darnold looked like he was most definitely the quarterback of the future for the New York Jets. Then, Adam Gase was hired as head coach in January 2019 and ever since that moment, Sam Darnold has regressed. I truly believe with a competent head coach, Sam Darnold can return to playing competently at the Quarterback position. The Adam Gase effect is real, and it has ruined the New York Jets, especially Sam Darnold.

You may ask, what in the world is the Adam Gase effect? The Adam Gase effect can be defined as follows: when players are coached by Adam Gase, they preform underwhelmingly or horribly, but when Adam Gase is removed from their playing career, these players begin to play great football. Let’s take a look at the only quarterback example of the Adam Gase Effect, Ryan Tannehill. Even though we have to take into account that Tannehill was hurt off and on with Adam Gase as him head coach, when he did play, he played mediocre to badly. Meanwhile, once he left to go to the Titans, he has become arguably a top 5 quarterback in the NFL. Could just be a coincidence but considering how Adam Gase led offenses consistently are ranked last in the league in every category, I’m willing to say he played badly due to Gase being his head coach.

There’s no telling that Sam Darnold will play better under a new head coach, but he could be underperforming due to the awful offensive scheme that Adam Gase uses. Whether Sam Darnold is yet another victim of the Adam Gase effect or he just isn’t a good quarterback is yet to be known, but after hiring arguably the worst Head Coach of all time, the Jets owe Sam Darnold one last shot before dumping him.

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