We Can Now Throw Sam Darnold's Jets Career on the Garbage Fire That is the NYJs

I don't want to put too fine a point on Sam Darnold's season thus far. Not even in the wake of him completing 23-of-34, .677, for 304 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 95.7 passer rating as he led Carolina to the 3-0 start. That's a nice little stat line, even in today's Bill Polian wet dream NFL where playing quality defense is misdemeanor. Nice, but not spectacular. 

In fact, if you look at Darnold's first three games, you'll see a lot of nice but not spectacular. He's been efficient. Capable. A solid, steady performer. Comparing his stats to the rest of the QBs in the league it hard because he's played an extra game, no matter how Panthers Twitter memes them. 

But if you go by the per game averages and the percentages, you'll find he's middle of the NFL pack across the board. He's 11th in yards per game. 15th in passer rating. 18th in completion percentage, and so on. If Darnold was a student, he'd be carrying a 3.5 GPA. If he was a "Dancing With the Stars" contestants, he'd get 7s across the board, except for the 6 from Len Goodman because of his footwork or something. 

The larger point is not how Darnold is doing. It's the fact that what he's doing, even this slightly-above-average-but-winning standard he's achieved in Carolina so far, would've been impossible for New York Sam Darnold. Simply unimaginable, by even the most blindly optimistic Jets honk. 

Consider this little factoid:

And it's not like he got lucky and parachuted into a powerhouse NFL squad, either. The 2020 Panthers were 5-11 and scored the 9th fewest points in the league. But simply getting away from the Jets has helped him find himself. It's allowed him to show flashes of why he was taken 3rd overall four drafts ago. 

Consider that if you took the highest single game passer ratings of his 41 career starts, all three of his Carolina games are in the top 14. He's had 18 games with no picks, and two of his Panthers starts are among them. And his two games this year where he's thrown for 300+ yards make up one-third of his career total of six. 

But just to make a fair comparison, let's eliminate his early seasons in New York and just look at his improvement year-to-year:

With the 2020 Jets (12 games):

Comp %: 59.6. TDs: 9. INT %: 3.0. Avg. Yards per Attempt: 6.1. Yards per Game: 184. Passer rating: 72.7. Record: 2-10. 

With the 2021 Panthers (3 games):

Comp %: 68.2.. TDs: 3. INT %: 0.9. Avg. Yards per Attempt: 8.4. Yards per Game: 296. Passer rating: 99.0. Record 3-0

Of course, most people will jump on one explanation as to why this is. Which is why that one reason was trending when you woke up this morning:

And if you're going to have a fall guy for this, you couldn't do much better than Adam Gase. A similar bump in production happened when Ryan Tannehill escaped Gase's icy, incompetent clutches in Miami, landed in Tennessee and then immediately led the league in major passing categories. 

But Adam Gase's failure is merely a symptom. The disease itself is the New York Jets as an entity. And it infects everyone it comes in contact with. Even promising young quarterback talent is not immune from it. And there is no vaccine or therapeutic available. Let me offer this up, which I cited in this week's "Do Your Pod": 

That's three different rookie quarterbacks. In three different decades. Under three different coaches. Running ostensibly three different systems. All posting a similar stat line. For the same diseased franchise. Only now Darnold has been able to distance himself from it, and is meeting with success for the first time in his four year career. 

No matter where your allegiances lie, you can still feel good for the guy, who seems to really deserve this. He certainly earned a second lease on his professional life and is taking advantage of it. And at the same time, we can all feel bad for his replacement. No one deserves what Zach Wilson is about to go through.