YES I KNOW IT'S PRE SEASON, BUT IT'S A GOOD SIGN..... His final preseason numbers assuming he doesn't play any more: 17-for-25 68% completion , 211 yards, 2TD's, 0 INTs — a 120.6 passer rating. Hopefully he can carry this play into regular season. He didn't have a great game #3 but I feel the O-line had a lot to do with that. He was under pressure all game. I also feel Gase was playing it very vanilla ...but that's expected. On 2 sets of downs he called a draw play on 3rd & 12, & 3rd & 5. I expect more from Gase during regular season.
No turnovers is the biggest thing for me. If you don't turn the ball over you should be in almost every game
With no Bell and missing most of his o line. More importantly though, he passed the eye test. He threw with confidence, arm looked good and he looked under control.
It will be interesting what the offense does with Bell and the running game....I think Darnold looking more comfortable with the play calling and in the pocket. Meanwhile the defense and Pass defense looking like a bigger concern...If offense can deliver and eat up the possession I expect to see a lot of 26-24, 31-28 type games.
I'm loving the fact that for the first time in forever? The Jets have a experienced offensive minded head coach. If Darnold is the real deal Gase will get the best out of him.
the other thing that stood out from our offense is that robby is by and far our best WR. and crowder looks great too. Q has not looked good at all for us and isn't showing any chemistry with darnold either
I’m concerned with Q’s drops both in games and practice. He had drop problems early in his career but devoted lots of time to fixing it between 2015/16 and cane out vastly improved. I hope he’s not regressing to his naturally subpar hands.
it seems like all the time spent rehabbing is taking a toll on him when he should have ben improving. he's never been a separation, hands, or route guy but it's becoming more of an issue since the stuff he was good at isn't getting done either.
One by-product of holding Bell out of games - planned or not - is that it gave Sam the chance to establish himself as the center of the offense, which I think is important. It sets a clear pecking order which might otherwise have been clouded with the outsized presence of a player like Bell. This is Darnold's team. Bell can have a big role in it, and hopefully he does, but if he starts whining that he isn't getting enough touches and isn't the center of attention then that's going to go badly for him and the team, so setting this hierarchy up at the beginning is important. I think Darnold is benefiting from the confidence being placed in him.
The best part about Sam Darnold is, that every time he drops back to pass I know to myself that I'm watching a young kid and a developing Franchise QB within the makings. Sam Darnold is the reason I'm gushing over Le'Veon Bell; our Franchise signal caller now has an ELITE best friend. Two of Sam's preseason passes should have been easy INT's. Even when he messes up I enjoy it because I know he's so mentally smart he's able to learn from mistakes and get focused. I love watching him play. I love seeing us build our team around him. He's Chad Pennington to me before the injuries he's a special signal caller who we've been waiting for.
It says a lot that a fan base like that of the Jets is so completely convinced by a guy who had 4 good games last season. Yet some folks expect him to post some very pedestrian stats and want to call it a success. Recent rookie QB’s have shown that a big year 2 jump is possible and we shouldn’t expect anything less from Darnold. He’ll need to play top 10 ball if the Jets are going to have a chance this season.
I think the reason for the disconnect between the optimism and the predicted stats is that the last time we had a good QB was so long ago the predicted stats would have been good back then.
Could be. And don’t get me wrong, some of the predicted stats aren’t necessarily bad, but if he only throws 24 TD’s I’m not expecting the Jets to be in the mix late in the season.
The more important thing to me is the "eye" test. espcially considering sam's age and experiance. He's going to make mistakes, his stats may not look pretty at times. he's a gun slinger. but what I love about sam and what I said form the start is he reminds me of aaron rodgers the way he plays. it's awkard compared to the perfect mechanics of say a tom brady, but he gets the ball where it needs to be from any position, any arm angle, and situation and the play is never over with him at QB. his ability to improvise and make somehting happen is already top tier level. He just needs to be consistent and limit mistakes which will come in time and he'll be in the top of the QB conversations in a few years along with mahomes who has the same type of ability but also already lights it up.
