Robbie Anderson: Jets to Blame For Sam Darnold's 'Messed Up' Development
With Baker Mayfield now on the Panthers, Sam Darnold is in a sticky situation.
Not only did things not pan out with the Jets—the team that drafted him third overall and started him for three years—but now, he can't catch a break with his new team either.
The Mayfield trade is an indictment of Darnold's performance since landing in Carolina, along with his inability to blossom over his three-season stint with Gang Green.
So, what went wrong? It's obviously a complex question, and Darnold can still turn his career around, but this is certainly different than what fans and pundits pictured when Darnold was showcasing his skills at USC.
In an interview with "I Am Athlete," former Jets and current Panthers wideout Robbie Anderson did his best to answer that very question, placing the blame on New York for how they welcomed him into the NFL.
“I will say this with Sam though, I feel like his development was all messed up coming into the league,” Anderson explained. “Look at Pat [Mahomes] and look at Lamar [Jackson], they ain’t play right away. I don’t feel like Sam should have played right away. I feel like his career got jump-started the wrong way.”
Anderson was one of Darnold's favorite targets over the signal-caller's first two seasons in green and white. The wide receiver racked up 1,531 receiving yards on 102 catches in those two campaigns. New York wasn't winning games, but that connection flashed some potential. Anderson hauled in 11 touchdown passes in 30 games as well.
The Temple product departed after the 2019 season, landing with the Panthers and sticking around in Carolina ever since. He went on to mention that New York's coaching staff was part of the problem for Darnold from the start.
“I feel like being in the building, the coaches, it wasn’t right,” he said. “So in his defense, I don’t feel like he was developed 100% correctly.”
This subject came up as a result of Anderson's past comments on Mayfield, leading up to this week's trade. The receiver clarified that his apparent disproval of Mayfield in the past wasn't a result of his opinion on the former Browns quarterback. It was more a product of him sticking up for Darnold.
“I felt like when I was doing that, that was in defense of Sam, because I feel like at the end of the day me and Sam do have chemistry,” Anderson added. “It wasn’t no disrespect to him or nothing. It was just really in defense of who my quarterback is right now.”
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