More Than Wins and Losses, Sam Darnold's Growth Will Mark Jets Season
At 5-8, the New York Jets season is left to play out the strings, a team in rebuild that nonetheless has to be disappointed with a lackluster year. Only one significant factor remains for the Jets as yet another year without the playoffs limps towards the finish line: Sam Darnold’s development and growth.
If this season is to be fairly judged at all beyond the wins and losses, then the growth and maturation of Darnold this year will be the grade that matters the most. Darnold’s progress seemed stunted or perhaps even in reverse for much of this year, a diagnosis of mono early in the season derailing what seemed like a measure of growth during the offseason and training camp. He can back and outside of a singular solid performance in a win over the Dallas Cowboys, Darnold seemed shaky.
He was throwing poor interceptions, making bad decisions in the pocket and generally seemed uncomfortable in the pocket. Poor losses at the Jacksonville Jaguars and then at the Miami Dolphins typified his uneven displays.
But over the past five weeks during a 4-1 stretch for the Jets, Darnold has grown. And stacked against last year, he’s made significant strides.
His completion percentage is up, he’s on pace to surpass last year’s passing yards for the season, his touchdown percentage is up slightly, his interception percentage is down and Darnold has improved his touchdown-to-interception ratio. All marks of a quarterback who has taken a step forward this year.
“I feel like I'm recognizing things a lot better than I was last year, to a certain degree. I feel like coverages and different pressures that teams bring, I feel like a lot more comfortable there,” Darnold told reporters this week at the team’s facility.
“I feel like I've made a jump to that degree. I still feel like I can get a lot better in a lot of different areas, so I'm just going to continue to work on those things and make sure that I continue to focus on that every single week.”
Darnold has also benefitted from improved play up and down the offense, in particular some moderate gains made by the offensive line. He was sacked a combined 11 times in the two Jets losses in Week 8 and Week 9.
Since then, he has been sacked 10 times in that stretch of five games where the Jets have won four games. In their one loss, a 22-6 loss in Week 13 at the Cincinnati Bengals, he was sacked four times. So it should be no surprise that as the Jets are able to protect Darnold, he’s responded and played well.
