The Jets didn’t anticipate Sam Darnold being around for a couple of reasons. One, the Cleveland Browns had the number one pick and a lot of people thought that Sam Darnold was going to be the first quarterback taken off the board in the draft. Two, some teams could have traded up with the New York Giants because they weren’t going to draft a quarterback at all.
Cleveland took Baker Mayfield number one overall instead and some people thought teams would trade up with the New York Giants in order to take Sam Darnold. Instead, the Giants kept their pick and they drafted running back Saquon Barkley.
After that, the Jets were smiling left, right, and center, and they knew Darnold fell right in their lap. He was the first USC quarterback taken by the Jets since 2009 when they drafted Mark Sanchez number nine overall and that experiment didn’t end well.
Sanchez started as a rookie and Darnold will most likely sit for a year behind a 38-year-old Josh McCown. Was Darnold the steal of the draft? He was one of the steals of the draft because Darnold landed in a good situation and he would have been in a dicey situation had he landed with the Cleveland Browns.
Darnold completed 63% of his passes for 4,143 yards 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in his redshirt Sophomore season at USC. He needs to work on his mechanics, but Darnold has the physical tools to be a great NFL quarterback.
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