This might not be the ideal situation for Jets quarterback Sam Darnold.
With no spring workouts in Florham Park, and no minicamps and OTA work in sight, Darnold will be missing valuable time to work on chemistry with new receivers like Breshad Perriman and Denzel Mims.
Think about it. These are the two leading candidates to be Darnold’s two starting outside receivers, and he’s not getting to work with them in spring camps. Obviously, Jamison Crowder, who had a terrific first year in green, will be the slot receiver, so Darnold already has chemistry with him.
Look, obviously, there is a darn good reason why there have been no spring practices in Florham Park this year – Coronavirus.
So I’m not making light of this, just pointing out that the lack of spring practices could hurt Darnold’s maturation process this year.
Remember, the spring NFL camps used to be called “passing camps.” Because it’s the passing game that gets the most out of these camps, since there is no tackling, and little contact. Peyton Manning used to love this spring work to get on this same page with his targets.
Tom Brady was able to organize a workout at a local high school in Tampa Bay this week to work with some of his new Buccaneer’s weapons. In a way, you could say what Brady is doing is a competitive advantage of over other teams. Florida is much more open for business than many other states.
In New Jersey, Darnold, and other players, could get arrested if they had a makeshift practice on a field in the Garden State, which has very strict rules about public gatherings right now. Same with Darnold’s home state of California, where the quarterback has organized workouts in the past.
Maybe he can try to put something together in Florida, but that requires jumping through a lot of hoops, like travel for all the different guys, finding a practice field, hotel rooms and so forth.
But the bottom line, through no fault of his own, Darnold can’t work with his new receivers (and other new passing game weapons like RB Lamical Perine) in the team’s off-season program, which isn’t happening on the field.
This isn’t ideal for him entering his all-important third season.
But with hard work in the summer, if there is a training camp, perhaps he can make up for lost time with extra work after practice.
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