The Jets will see a player this Sunday in a Panthers uniform whom they abandoned too soon. He could have been a cornerstone player for the organization and perhaps remember them that Sunday afternoon in Charlotte.
No, not Sam Darnold. I’m talking about Robby Anderson.
While some Jets fans may regret the decision to switch Darnold to the Panthers in April, I think the Jets will end up looking good in that move and with the writing of Zach Wilson.
The decision to allow Anderson to walk as a free agent in March 2020 still baffles me and is the biggest mistake CEO Joe Douglas has made in his two years in office. Anderson left for a reasonable contract (two years, $ 20 million) from the Panthers and recently signed a two-year, $ 29.5 million extension with the team.
The Jets left Anderson after spending four years developing it from finding unwritten free agents to potential Pro Bowl receiver. Anderson was the rare Jets player to really develop with the team, and it was an even better story to be a player they found outside of Temple and who took risks.
Douglas has admitted that he made a mistake during the low season of 2020 when evaluating Anderson’s market. The Jets hoped he would get more money than the Panthers offered when they built their budget for a free agency. When it became clear that Anderson’s market was not as robust as expected, it was too late.
“I’ve thought a lot about Robby,” Douglas said last November. “As you know, there are thousands of decisions that appear on your desktop during the year. And I go back and look at what I could have done better in that particular situation. I thought our guys did a fantastic job really analyzing the market value of all the position groups up to the free agency last year. I think what went wrong for us and Robby, we thought Robby’s value would be even greater than he signed for Carolina. And so I think that’s my thing, ultimately, and we’re on track to get better control over the market value of all the players. Honestly, we would all love to see Robby here, doing what he’s doing, but I tilt my hat toward the success he has. But obviously we don’t want to be in business or lose good players. “
This is a business the Jets have been in too often lately. At least with Leonard Williams and Jamal Adams, one could point to the contractual demands the Jets didn’t think were reasonable. It is possible that Darnold ended up proving to be another good player who was abandoned too soon, but again, there were understandable reasons to abandon him when they did. It was time for Darnold to charge and quarterback extensions are a lot of money. The Jets ’timeline as an organization was not aligned with Darnold’s timeline and they also had the opportunity with election number 2 to start over with Wilson.
There is no such justification with Anderson. He showed what the Jets were missing last year when he had a maximum run of 95 receptions and 1,096 yards. He thrived on Joe Brady’s offense. The Jets had 3,115 yards combined for their wide receivers, the second-worst NFL mark behind the Ravens. Breshad Perriman, the man the Jets signed to replace Anderson, had just 30 catches for 505 yards in 12 games and was not recovered this year.
Anderson’s only legitimate concern when he joined the free agency was his track record after being arrested twice over a nine-month period in 2017-18. All of these charges were dropped, except for reckless driving and Anderson has been out of trouble ever since. It would be understandable if the Jets didn’t want to commit to Anderson in the long run after their problems, but the Panthers only gave him a two-year deal, which is easy to happen.
On Sunday, Anderson could make Douglas nauseous when he faces the Jets’ young cornerbacks.
“You have to know where you stand because of your ability to take a look at coverage and win individually, especially vertically,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “He is a young man with a lot of talent, he also has a lot of struggle in him. His mindset has been built in the right way. It will be a definite challenge to face it ”.
A challenge that Jets opponents should face, not the Jets.