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He knows how to play the game.
You see these stories about teams calling the Jets about Sam Darnold. What should you make of them?
“Quarterback trade talks across the league already have heated up, and multiple teams have reached out to the New York Jets to express interest in trading for Sam Darnold, the No. 3 overall pick in 2018, per league sources,” wrote ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Sunday. “The Jets haven’t turned away the calls, sources said, but they also haven’t made any firm decisions about their future at quarterback.”
First of all, you would have to assume this information came from somebody at One Jets Drive. After all, who knows best about who is receiving “multiple” calls aside from the person/organization who is getting the “multiple” calls?
I’m not going to pinpoint who might be leaking it, but semantics being used by the source are important to consider here. The source(s) is telling the reporter that teams are calling about Darnold, and isn’t saying the Jets are shopping Darnold.
This delineation is very important to point out, because if it’s just teams calling about the player, and the team not actively shopping the player, this doesn’t damage the relationship with the player, as much, if they decide to keep the player. After all, the Jets aren’t the ones doing the calling.
Any team is allowed to call any other team to inquire about the availability of a player. There was a report that teams have called Seattle about Russell Wilson.
But by leaking out to the media that “multiple” teams have reached out to the New York Jets,” that’s a skillful way of letting teams around the league know there is a lot of interest, so it could increase the value the Jets get in return if they make a trade by creating a bidding war.
And don’t be naive, Joe Douglas deals with these national insiders. I’m not saying he was Schefter’s source here. but I’m just saying he has a strong relationship with some of these people.
Remember, he was a “hot” GM candidate for a number of years, and helping out NFL insiders, can help make you a “hot” candidate.
Now it should be pointed out that there are many unqualified people who end up as coaches or GM’s thanks to being leakers to insiders, who then promote then heck out of them as candidates. Shame on the teams that hire coaches and GM’s based on media insiders saying they were hot candidates. That is just dumb.
But this doesn’t apply to Douglas, who is not only popular with some of the insiders, but also a heck of candidate.
Once again, I’m not saying Douglas was the source, but just saying he knows how to play the game, and whether it was Joe, or one of his underlings, telling Schefter this, it benefits the Jets, by helping to drive up the price for Darnold, yet it doesn’t offend the player. The positioning here is perfect.
And remember, Douglas has been really smart with the semantics he uses when talking about potential trades. He never says he’s shopping anybody, but always says he will take any call, from any team, wanting to discuss players.
So this story fits right into that narrative.
February 9, 2021
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