Skip to main content

New York Jets training camp: Sam Darnold is blocking out the doom and gloom about the offense

Expectations aren't high for the New York Jets this year. That doesn't matter much to quarterback Sam Darnold.

Sam Darnold has heard the whispers. 

The third-year quarterback is aware that no one thinks the New York Jets are headed to the playoffs. There is talk that the Jets don’t have stars or big names and lack playmakers on offense. The headlines declare that Darnold’s head coach is on the hot seat, that the Jets are going to take a step back after going 7-9 a year ago.

Darnold also knows that if he achieves his own lofty goals, he’ll quiet a lot of critics.

“We're not really worried about that,” Darnold told reporters this past week in a virtual press conference following practice. “If people want to sleep on us, they can sleep on us. We're fine. We're worried about what we gotta do here. For us, it's making sure that we're locked in every single practice and during meetings. We can just go from there.”

His first two seasons in the NFL, Darnold has been fine but hasn’t gotten much help with the team around him. All told in two seasons, spanning 26 total starts, he has thrown 36 touchdowns and 28 interceptions and completed 59.9 percent of his passes. The Jets are 11-15 in two years when he starts.

This year, the offense is different. The offensive line has been revamped with four new starters. Breshad Perriman comes in and replaces Robby Anderson, the team’s second-leading receiver a year ago who left in free agency. Rookie Denzel Mims, a second round pick, joins Perriman and Jamison Crowder, the team’s leading receiver a year ago.

Running back Le’Veon Bell returns this year coming off a challenging season as opposed to last training camp where he had sat out a year in Pittsburgh in a contract dispute.

“I already know the system and I'm just trying to build off of that,” Darnold said. “This whole offseason was just me building on what I already knew, which was nice. We're not thinking that we're ahead of anyone. We're working just as hard if not harder than anyone. We're making sure that we go out there every single day and focus on what we need to do that day. And we're not looking any further than that.”

Jets head coach Adam Gase is counting on Darnold to be a leader with this group and be the guy that both new and old players look to lead them.

“He’s fired up to go, I know that,” Gase said a week ago in a virtual press conference. “I know he worked extremely hard this offseason, looks great.”

Darnold credits the time he spent with a bunch of his teammates in Florida before training camp. Organized workouts had been canceled due to COVID-19 but Darnold organized a meet up in Florida with Perriman, Mims, Crowder and other teammates. The gathering was not a sanctioned Jets event, but Darnold thinks the time spent together was beneficial.

“it was great,” Darnold said. “It was good just to see the guys, Just to spend time with each other and hang out, I think that was the biggest part. Running routes and then getting the timing down, that was huge. Then being able to come here, I feel like we didn't really miss a beat. We just kind of picked up right where we left off. The time that we spent in Florida was definitely beneficial.”