Ex-Jets GM Who Drafted Sam Darnold Reflects on Team's Decision to Trade Him

As quarterback Sam Darnold prepares for his long-awaited trip to the Super Bowl next week, the Jets general manager who drafted him with the third overall pick in 2018 has opened up about the bittersweet emotions he feels watching the quarterback succeed.

“I was always kind of sad that Sam wasn't able to fulfill that potential in New York,” Mike Maccagnan, who served as the Gang Green GM from 2015 to 2019, told ESPN this week, in his first interview since his firing in 2019. “That's where he started his journey, and, in an ideal world, he would've finished it there.

“But it wasn't meant to be, and he had to go on his own journey to grow and develop in different places. It makes me feel good that he's fulfilling his potential. It's not necessarily vindication. In our business, when you see something, and it turns out the way you envisioned it, it makes you feel good. I think every scout probably feels that way.”

Although Darnold seemed like “The Guy” for New York at the start of his rookie season, the team would still finish that year 4–12. Maccagnan and then-coach Todd Bowles were fired, and Darnold was, eventually, traded to the Panthers, where he also struggled before moving to the 49ers, then the Vikings and now the Seahawks.

In the interview, Maccagnan told ESPN's Rich Cimini that he wishes the Jets had given Darnold more of a chance before trading him away and drafting rookie Zach Wilson in his place.

“My personal opinion: I would've liked to have seen him get a full opportunity there,” Maccagnan said. “But, at the end of the day, I wasn't in that building, so I can't say, ‘They should've done this, this and this.’ I wasn't around. But I was saddened to see them trade him.”

Maccagnan also admitted that, although he knows his Jets tenure was far from perfect, he “never second-guessed” his belief in Darnold.

“I always felt he was the one I got right,” the scout said.

As the NFL world continues to debate how much of quarterback success can be attributed to the player and how much can be attributed to the team, Darnold's story emerges as one of both hope and caution. Sure, sometimes a top-ten pick just doesn't work out ... but sometimes, with the right tools, that top-ten pick can find a way to succeed elsewhere. For Jets fans, that Darnold even thrived with the Vikings was punishment enough; and now that he's on his way to a Super Bowl, well, it's just salt in the wound.

For the QB himself, though (and for Maccagnan, for that matter), the trip to the Big Game is nothing more than potential realized and destiny fulfilled—indeed, it sounds like there was nothing "bust" about it.

We'll see if the comeback kid can pull off the legacy-defining win come Sunday, Feb. 8 against the Patriots.

More NFL on Sports Illustrated