Don’t make it hard than it is

The decision.

There are people who are acting like the Jets’ decision on Sam Darnold is incredibly difficult.

It’s really not.

You have three years of NFL tape on the QB now.

You have enough tape to make a decision.

You basically know who he is.

I asked Christopher Johnson, after Week One, if there is a risk of “confirmation bias” with Darnold, where Joe Douglas and Adam Gase will be forced to pursue this for a number of years.

And he said “no.”

Obviously Gase will likely be out of the picture shortly, but he wasn’t when the question was asked.

It’s hard to win in the NFL when “confirmation bias” is practiced by a personnel department, where you keep chasing a dream with a player to proof you were right.

Bad organizations do that. Good ones know when to move on. The only thing that matters is winning on Sunday, not trying to proof you were right on draft picks.

Darnold is what he is – a good athlete, who is good on his first read, and can create extra time with his legs, and make some street-yard plays, but in the pocket, he struggles going through his progressions and reading defense. This was the story at USC, and continues to be the case in Florham Park.

What the Jets need to do this off-season is trade Darnold, pick a QB either at two, or with the Seattle pick later in the first round, or move around in the first round to do so, and re-sign Joe Flacco to be the bridge QB, like Ryan Fitzpatrick, until the new kid is ready.

All this talk about the Jets not doing enough to give Darnold a strong enough supporting case is overrated.

I know he was hurt earlier in the season, but Denzel Mims has been back for a while, and against Cleveland, the talented rookie had no catches. That’s hard to fathom.

Honestly, it seemed like Mims did better work with Flacco, when Darnold was out, like in the Los Angeles Chargers game.

Darnold just doesn’t throw down field very often. Maybe he’s not seeing down field well, but it’s pretty clear that the Darnold-Mims combination needs some work.

What Flacco was doing against the Chargers, with Mims, was throwing the 6-3, 210 pound receiver “open” as they say in the football world. In other words, throw it to him sometimes in tight coverage, and let him go up and get the ball.

Darnold doesn’t seem to love these kind of throws, perhaps preferring to throw to receivers who are clearly open.

But for Mims to have no catches against the Browns was a head-scratcher, and enlightening.

So no, no matter what some people will lead you to believe, this is not a tough decision. Maybe it’s a painful decision for some in the building, but not tough.

And while Douglas shouldn’t have confirmation bias ever if he wants to be a good GM, he obviously shouldn’t be inclined to have any with Darnold, who he didn’t even pick.

December 28, 2020

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