Most NFL coaches and general managers prefer to have “their guys” in as many places as possible. Familiarity and relationships play a crucial role in achieving success, as personnel you can trust to get the job done on a weekly basis come few and far between. And when it comes to front office-player relationships, well, players brought in by the current regime tend to have a longer leash than those who weren’t.
Sam Darnold wasn’t brought in by Joe Douglas.
Douglas essentially had no say in who his quarterback was going to be when he became the Jets’ general manager in June 2019. Darnold was just drafted the year before and, for better or worse, was the quarterback New York trusted to lead it back to the top of the AFC East. Even though Darnold wasn’t “his guy,” Douglas wasn’t going to move on so soon from a second-year signal-caller still loaded with potential.
On Monday, Douglas finally got his chance to bet on the quarterback of his choosing. Sitting in prime position to land BYU’s Zach Wilson or Ohio State’s Justin Fields with the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NFL draft, Douglas shipped Darnold to the Panthers in exchange for three draft picks, including a second-round selection in the 2022 draft. In doing so, Douglas all but guaranteed he is picking a quarterback with his first selection.
It never made much sense for Douglas to bet $18.8 million — the total of Darnold’s fifth-year option — on the embattled 23-year-old’s ability to turn his career around under a new coaching staff. If Douglas picked up Darnold’s fifth-year option to ensure he didn’t hit free agency next offseason and he flopped again in 2021, Douglas would have faced major backlash for passing up on the opportunity to land a potentially elite prospect in Fields or Wilson.
Trading Darnold and betting on a rookie signal-caller to be the one to get the Jets back on track absolves Douglas of that burden. Nobody is going to fault New York’s second-year general manager for going in a different direction at quarterback and bringing in his own guy at the position. Not many general managers in football stick with a quarterback they didn’t draft longer than they absolutely have to, especially when the results are subpar at best.
There is no guarantee the rookie quarterback Douglas settles on will meet expectations, but at least the GM can take solace in the fact that it was his draft pick and not that of a shunned general manager. What the Jets get out of the quarterback position in the years to come is now solely on Douglas, a man who built his career on scouting.
Considering how poorly Darnold fared in his time with the Jets, that doesn’t sound like too bad of a bet.
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