Sam Darnold should know what a bad football team looks like after two seasons in the NFL. He doesn’t think the 2020 Jets are going to be one, though.
New York’s roster had a major makeover this offseason with the addition of nine free agents and nine draft picks. With just 11 wins to Gang Green’s name through Darnold’s first two campaigns, the quarterback now believes the Jets have the right personnel in place.
“We definitely have the guys to be able to win football games,” Darnold told the Jets website, “but as we see every year, it’s about putting everything together. Right now, we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Given the amount of roster turnover, it’s going to be difficult for the Jets to build chemistry right away. Losing OTAs and minicamp due to the COVID-19 pandemic certainly didn’t help their cause, and it remains to be seen what training camp and the preseason will look like.
For Darnold though, this upcoming season is his most important yet. The honeymoon period is over now that he’s entering his third season in the league. Darnold’s rookie season, in which he threw for 2,865 yards, 17 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, was mediocre at best. He followed it up with a sophomore season that showed minor improvement while battling obstacles like mononucleosis and a poor offensive line. Darnold threw for 3,024 yards, 19 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 13 starts.
Darnold and the Jets won’t get much help from their schedule in 2020. They face the fourth-toughest slate in the league based on their opponents’ win percentage from last season.
So if the Jets are going to win a good amount of games this season, Darnold’s claim about the players in place is going have to be right.