Once upon a time, and not long ago, the phone rang in the office of Jets CEO Joe Douglas, and a general manager from another team could start a conversation that would go like this:
“Hey Joe, congratulations on the news concert. … Uh, I wonder if Sam Darnold might be available (nervous laughs). “
(Laughs) Click.
Fast forward so far:
“Hey Joe, we’re in the QB market, can we talk about Sam?”
“Of course you can! We have no untouchables on our team, not after a 2-14 season. We still love Sam, let’s not fool ourselves, but go ahead, make me your best offer and we’ll see where he goes. “
Sam Darnold, the future savior of the Jets three brief drafts ago, is twisting in the wind these days, giving up and reduced to waiting for Douglas to make his decision to alter the franchise over the quarterback’s decision.
Douglas on Wednesday: “I’ll answer the call if it’s done.”
It means Darnold is on a different boat than three of his 2018 quarterback teammates. The bills won’t answer the call if it’s done to Josh Allen. The Browns will not answer the call if it is made to Baker Mayfield. The Ravens will not answer the call if it is made to Lamar Jackson. Darnold is on the boat with Josh Rosen.
“Our stance on Sam hasn’t changed,” Douglas said.
Good try, Joe.
Yeah yeah.
“He is a very talented player, he is very intelligent, very tough. … We have no doubt Sam will reach his exceptional potential, “Douglas said Wednesday.
Of course, this is GM, designed to inflate the value of its assets for suitors. Because (wink, wink) this exceptional potential can be achieved with a different uniform.
“Obviously, we are in the process of getting as much information as we can drive through free agency and the project, but our stance on Sam has not changed,” Douglas said.
Once again, GM-speak designed to keep the poor guy hoping to be able to revive his career with the franchise that drafted him.
The NFL can be such a cruel business. It was just 11 months ago, before the 2020 draft, when Douglas said:
“When I met Sam’s parents in the first preseason game [August 2019]”I promised them I would do my best to take care of Sam with protection and players.”
Unfortunately, even with left-back Mekhi Becton, Sam needed more protection, and even with wide receivers Denzel Mims and Breshad Perriman hurting the wounds, he needed more players (and less Adam Gase) , and here it is now
I wonder if Douglas will use BYU second baseman Zach Wilson or Ohio State Justin Fields, and reset the quarterback’s financial watch and change Darnold.
Wondering if Douglas will enter the Deshaun Watson draw, if the jeans fall and entertain his business desires and change him.
I wonder if Douglas will switch to second team and build around him with his first two players this year and six of the top 98 teams … not to mention a couple of first rounds in 2022.
For Darnold, it should feel like a baffling musical quarterbacks game, knowing only that he won’t run out of a chair, but maybe not the one he prefers.
It seems like a lifetime ago that former GM GM Maccagnan and his staff took Darnold to dinner in Morristown a week before the 2018 draft and left him deflated because they were convinced the Browns would use the first overall selection.
It seems like a lifetime ago when coach Todd Bowles named Darnold as the starter of the first night in Detroit and euphoric Jets fans started their “JETS, Jets, Jets, Jets!” he sang behind the Lions bench after the boy made a pick-six in his first pass in the NFL and got a 48-17 victory. And then he hugged his proud parents out of the visiting locker room.
Finally, the answer has long been on Broadway, Joe Namath.
These headlines:
Sam’s Club.
Samsational.
Amazing.
Sam The Man.
Mononucleosis would not stop it.
Gase would be his quarterback whisper.
No one imagined he would see ghosts on national television against Bill Belichick.
No one imagined he would step back in his third season (nine touchdowns, 11 interceptions, decision making) and watch his career TD-INT ratio fall to 45-39 and his record loss loss to 13 – 25.
Nothing gives a fan base more hope than a young franchise quarterback.
Sam Darnold was the golden boy.
He has no idea if he still is.
Wilson’s Pro Day is March 26th. Fields Pro Day is March 30th. The Jets will be in effect.
Douglas’s phone will ring. The GM will answer the call.
It should do the same.
If Douglas has the same conviction about Wilson or Fields that Maccagnan had about Darnold, he should write it.
Watson will cost a lot of boat, but it’s worth it, and Douglas has a lot of draft capital and $ 80 million in tapas room.
March Madness by Sam Darnold. And maybe beyond.