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Joe Douglas can’t get carried away buying into this particular narrative too much . . .
I’m talking about the Sam Darnold is a victim card, and if you just get him the help he needs, he will be fine.
What ESPN’s Jeff Saturday said recently is illustrative of his narrative.
“At the end of the day, this is not a Darnold issue,” Saturday said. “It’s what can you to help him on the outside. How are you going to help him with an offensive line that is not going to get it done?”
No, it’s not as simple as that. And Saturday isn’t alone, you read articles pushing this narrative all over the place, you read this narrative on Twitter from fans every day.
Do the Jets need to improve their offensive line? Yes. Do they need to get him more weapons at receiver? Yes. Does Sam Darnold need to improve? Absolutely.
So if there was a multiple choice question, the best answer to choose would be: “All of the above.”
Douglas needs to avoid falling into the trap. What trap? The one where he thinks that just fixing the line and receivers will fix Darnold.
That isn’t accurate.
The player has a lot of work to do individually to take the next step as a QB. He needs to stop bird-dogging passes to his first read and he needs to go through his progressive scans better. As I mentioned the other day, right now, he’s more of a thrower than a passer.
“Throwers wait to see a receiver break open and then sling it in that direction, usually as hard as they can,” said Tampa Bay Buc’s coach Bruce Arians. “Passers release the ball before the receiver gets open, usually with the right velocity and touch.”
So while he has a world of potential, he needs to read defenses better and throw with more anticipation.
ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, who has a strong relationship with Adam Gase, said about the coach in relation to Darnold: “Adam Gase is known as a guy who will defend Sam Darnold to the end. He really has his QB’s back.”
Maybe, but if Gase learned from his experience in Miami, which didn’t end well, having his QB’s back to the end can hurt him with the rest of the team. According to the Sun-Sentinel’s Omar Kelly, some Dolphins defenders thought there was a double-standard, where Gase would be critical of other players, but never Ryan Tannehill, who was pretty inconsistent with the Dolphins.
Kelly feels that some players quit on Gase at the end of the 2018 season because of this perceived double-standard.
So do you think Gase is going to make the same mistake with the Jets? Probably not.
And remember that story in the New York Post quoting a former Jets player saying, “Darnold needs to step the F up?”
Well that story was written by a scribe who has some fans thinks defends Gase too much. Go on Twitter, and you will see this perception being espoused, especially after that story quoting the unnamed former teammate.
So if a writer, who some people believe is pro-Gase, is quoting a former player saying, “Darnold needs to step the F up,” don’t you think on some level the coach feels that way?
So the point here is simple. Yes, the Jets need some offensive line and receiver help, but Darnold isn’t just a victim here. He has a lot of work to do himself.
And Douglas needs to enter free agency with this in mind, and not spend like a drunken sailor to surround the QB with an all-star team on offense, and think this will solve all his issues. It doesn’t work that way. Many GM’s have fallen into the trap over the years, like Douglas’ former boss in Chicago, Ryan Pace.
March 5, 2020
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