The New York Jets have officially made their decision about the future of the franchise’s quarterback position. And not a moment too soon….

The Jets have traded QB Sam Darnold to the QB needy Carolina Panthers in exchange for a 2021 6th round draft pick, a 2022 2nd round draft pick, and a 2022 4th round draft pick late Monday afternoon. This trade ends Darnold’s much-maligned career in New York where there was so much promise when he was drafted by then GM, Mike MacCagnan 3rd overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. Darnold was one of the “top 5” quarterbacks in that year’s draft which featured Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Rosen. This was supposed the be the QB class that “changed” the NFL. If you look at that list now, Lamar Jackson has won an MVP in the NFL and played in an AFC Championship game. Baker Mayfield broke Cleveland’s playoff drought and leads one of the high-powered offenses in the AFC. Josh Allen, who a LOT of people made fun of, is an AFC East Champion, played in an AFC Championship game, and was in consideration for NFL MVP last season. Josh Rosen cannot even get a backup QB job in the NFL after Kliff Kingsbury and the Arizona Cardinals traded Rosen to Miami after drafting QB Kyler Murray and was subsequently released after he failed to catch on. And then there’s Sam Darnold and the Jets (in the best Joe Beningo voice I can do). In his 3-year career with the New York Jets, Sam Darnold has thrown for 8,097 yards, 45 TD’s, and 39 INTs with a 59.8% completion percentage- hardly stats that strike fear into the hearts of the opposition. While some analysts have said that Darnold possesses ‘magical sloppiness’ in his ability to make plays out of nothing, Jets fans have watched this ‘magical sloppiness’ result in just plain old sloppy QB play which resulted in bad reads, untimely turnovers, and a failure to produce points for an offensively challenged football team. For a QB in his third year in the NFL, the mistakes made in year one should NOT be made in year three on ANY level! And Sam was given every opportunity last season despite all the shortcomings around him to show that he can be successful and can be ‘the guy’ moving forward. But you can’t be ‘the guy’ if you’re constantly seeing ‘ghosts’ on the football field.

But as much as we want to bash Darnold for being a bad QB, the New York Jets are just as guilty as he is for the team’s woes. Mike MacCagnan’s arrogance came back to bite him in the ass when he drafted young Sam Darnold. And this arrogance pre-dates even the 2018 NFL draft, in my opinion. The combination of having a GM that never really addressed an offensive line that needed an overhaul, a head coach who was on the hot seat, an offensive coordinator who came back the year before as a QB coach after taking a 5-year hiatus from the game of football, and a football team that lacked talent overall was the ‘perfect storm’ that seemingly doomed Sam from the moment he was drafted. And it got progressively worse with the hire of Adam Gase as head coach in 2019-2020. With no talent around him and an unclear direction of where the franchise was heading at that point, its safe to say that the Jets failed Darnold in wasting his rookie contract by not building around him properly just as Darnold failed the Jets in his lack of production on the football field.

Why is this trade perfect for both teams right now? Because the Jets add to the arsenal of draft picks they already have to accelerate the TRUE rebuild that this team is currently undergoing plus get the opportunity to reset the QB position financially, which opens up cap space to obtain free agents they choose to go after in the future and re-sign homegrown players. The Panthers get a QB which they think they can fix and can be ‘the guy’ going forward. And its clear that they want to move on from Teddy Bridgewater so, Darnold will be given an opportunity to compete for the starting job in Carolina. A win-win for all parties involved!

Now, full disclosure, I was a huge fan of Sam. I wanted him to do well here. I defended him to anyone that would listen from all the Sam-Haters within the fan base. But what we all saw last year made all the defending pointless. Sam was just not going to cut it as a New York Jet. So, I wish him well in Carolina and I do hope that he can resurrect his career over there.

The smart money is that the Jets are taking a quarterback at 2. And the overwhelming consensus is that the Jets are “leaning” in the direction of BYU QB Zack Wilson. So, its time for Jets Nation to put the past 3 years of failures, heartaches, and disappointments behind and begin to focus on the future. And, if Joe Douglas has anything to say about it, the future of the New York Jets organization now looks to not just take down the big top circus tents that have been associated with this team for a long time now, but to burn them in defiance and make the Jets respectable again.

Let’s discuss the options the Jets have with the #2 draft pick for this one. This has been asource of some very heated discussions across Jets Nation and everyone has their own idea onhow to proceed.

First, (and the most annoying if I’m being honest) is the crowd that says we should draft PeneiSewell at 2. Guys, throw this idea out the window. Sewell is a left tackle and we have ours.People say just swap becton or Sewell to the right side. Wrong! Tackles do not just swap sideslike it’s nothing. A left tackle trying to play on the right side has to reverse everything he haslearned about the position. Footwork is different. Protection packages are different. Runblocking assignments are reversed. Now, I am not saying an elite left tackle doesn’t have theability and talent to make that swap, but you drafted them for a reason right? You drafted thembecause they are the top talent at their position only to move them out of it? It makes no sense.Drafting Sewell at 2 is essentially using our #2 pick on a depth player and that is what the 6thand 7th rounds are for, not the 1st round. Sorry Penei, Miami or Cincinnati will be calling shortly.

The “stick with Sam” fans are also saying we need weapons. I get that and I don’t disagree. Iam hearing Devonta Smith, WR from Bama or Jaylen Waddle also from Bama. Ja’Marr Chasefrom LSU has surprisingly fallen out of many conversations after Smith won the Heisman, but isstill a legit #1 talent and will be a franchise WR somewhere. I like Smith, I like Chase. Waddleand his ankle scare me, but given the proper time to heal, Waddle is a threat on the field. Thisweapon take is not far off base. My concern is, Sam Darnold has struggled with deep ballaccuracy. Tends to under throw receivers down the field or sail intermediate passes over themiddle. If the QB can’t consistently get the ball to those weapons, then they are meaningless inthe grand scheme of things. And honestly, Joe Douglas didn’t draft Sam. Robert Saleh and Co.didn’t groom Sam. Given the options the Jets have, Deshaun Watson, Justin Fields, ZachWilson, a very remote Trevor Lawrence falling possibility.. Given these options, I don’t see theJets sticking with Sam Darnold because if they did, and Sam failed again while Fields, Wilsonand Watson are shining elsewhere, Jets fans, that is something GM’s don’t come back from.

Finally we have “the take a QB” crowd. This is where I fall into the mix. With the Jets sitting at 2,we are likely out of the running for Trevor Lawrence, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t have myfingers crossed that he falls! More than likely, the New York Jets QB decision will come down todrafting Justin Fields or Zach Wilson. Fields is legit. If there was ever a QB to shake the OhioState system QB stigma that they have had for years, it’s Justin Fields. He throws a very prettydeep ball, he is mobile, he is accurate and makes good decisions. My concern is his bounceback ability. Watching tape on him, if things do end up off script or a bad series happens, Inoticed he struggles a bit to rebound. I have noticed improvement in this aspect toward the endof this year, but admittedly, 8 total games, 6 regular season and 2 playoff games, is a very smallsample size to go off of. Fields will be a gamble. I know, I know.. He was the most recruitedprospect coming out of high school.. But football only gets harder. Give me a QB that hasstruggled and fought through real adversity. A kid who is built to handle that.

Which brings me to Zach Wilson. Every bit as accurate as Fields, has a cannon for an arm, buthe has a very wonky ¾ release on his throws that puts a great deal of strain on his throwingshoulder. A mechanics flaw that did, in fact, lead to a shoulder surgery in January of 2019.Though an injury directly caused the surgery, Wilson said he has had a minor shoulder issuesince high school. To some, that might be a huge red flag. But to QB trainers and coaches, it issimply coaching a revised release of the ball and the shoulder will no longer be an issue.

Wilson edges out Fields at 2 for me. I just don’t have the rebound concerns that I do with Fields.And I just cannot justify sticking with Darnold. 3 years with the same issues, and some of thoseissues getting worse. I have never seen a QB throw without stepping into the trow so much as Ihave with Sam. I have never seen someone stare down routes so much. And even more thanthat, If I see these things, Saleh and Douglas see them too.

That said, I will be 100% on board with whomever Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh end up goingwith and I will trust the process. A phrase we Jets fans have been saying for years, but this onefeels different. Don’t you fans feel different this year? Something has changed within the DNA ofthis franchise. Maybe it is ownership finally coming to terms with the fact that they don’t know this sport and they should let men who do run the show. Maybe it is Robert Saleh and the AllGas, No Brake mantra. But something in this organization just feels different and I have notbeen this excited for a Jets offseason in a very long time. This one will be one for the books Jetsfans. Sit back, enjoy the ride and Go Jets!

When Joe Douglas was hired as the GM of the much-maligned New York Jets, he was given the single most difficult task asked of any New York professional sports general manager- turn an NFL laughingstock franchise into legitimate championship contender. A very daunting task- for any GM who has dared to step into the role since its last playoff appearance in 2010; A year in which the Jets were going into their second AFC Championship Game under former head coach Rex Ryan and then, GM Mike Tannenbaum. Since then, the Jets have been an absolute dumpster fire of a franchise. The litany of reasons that could be given for those failures could be an episode of ESPN’s 30 for 30 all by itself! But the time has finally come for a new era of Jets football to emerge from the wreckage of multiple failed experiments from a GM inheriting a head coach that he may not want to both the GM and the HC reporting to the owner on equal footing, with no clear line drawn as to whose responsibility was what within the power hierarchy. The very public firing of Adam Gase and the subsequent press conferences that followed in which interim owner Christopher Johnson finally admitted failure and vowed change would come took Jets fans by surprise, and dare I say it, gave us a small sliver of hope! 

Hope! What is that?! What is this ‘hope’ that people speak of?! Is it the hope that the Johnson family will let his football people do football work instead of defaulting to the words of head-hunting firms that have zero skin in the game?! That Joe Douglas will get to do the job that he was hired for?! Well, it sure does look like it the way Douglas is conducting his head coaching search.

Sure, Jets fans (myself included) got excited when news came down of the list of candidates that the Jets had already interviewed. Names that included Chiefs OC Eric Bienemy, 49ers DC Robert Salah, Bills OC Brian Daboll, and Titans OC Arthur Smith. The Jets have had second interviews with Salah and Smith so far and as the days pass, you can bet that they will have more interviews lined up still. Joe Douglas has already set a precedent in his short time as Jets GM- he is not interested in the “sexy” hire. This fact alone should have Jets fans optimistic! Why you may ask? Because past Jets GM’s have always caved to the wants and desires of the Johnsons- who have always sought to dominate the New York sports headlines for all the wrong reasons! Joe Douglas wants a “CEO” type of head coach; a leader of men and someone who commands the respect of his players in the locker room. This type of head coach is someone that Jets fans should also want- a coach who will hold his players accountable, his staff accountable, and himself accountable. And if the Jets intend to find this coach, they must search, they must interview, they must kick over every single stone they find to procure that coveted treasure.

My advice to Jets fans all over the world is based on one word- patience. Be patient with Joe Douglas. Be patient with his process. Trust in the process. And let us finally leave the Same Old Jets moniker behind once and for all.