We saw two sides of Sam Darnold in the Jets’ 42-21 loss to the Ravens on Thursday night: the mobile Darnold and the Darnold who sits in the pocket.
One of those versions of the young quarterback rifled off impressively-precise passes and made the offense look dynamic. The other worked at times but mostly remained stagnant, bland and overall ineffective. That’s been the case for most of the season.
Can you tell which is which?
Whether Adam Gase likes it or not, Darnold is better when he plays outside of the pocket. He proved it Thursday night on the Jets’ first touchdown drive with two sensational throws to Jamison Crowder. On the first, Darnold scrambled to the right and ran all the way to the line of scrimmage before hitting Jamison Crowder in stride for a 41-yard catch-and-run. Next, Darnold rolled out to the right all the way to the sideline before throwing a dart to Crowder to the right corner of the end zone.
"He just wanted the tougher one!" 😅#NYJvsBAL | #TakeFlight pic.twitter.com/LfS5G3UXWV
— New York Jets (@nyjets) December 13, 2019
Both throws were equally impressive and quintessential Darnold.
Gase, however, clearly wants Darnold to be a pocket-passer when all the evidence suggests he isn’t and shouldn’t be one. Those two early passes to Crowder were only a few examples of Darnold’s ability to play better when he runs around behind the line of scrimmage – he’s done it time and time again this season, especially in games when the offense excels. But instead of designing his offense around Darnold’s mobility, Gase has tried to turn Darnold into the next Peyton Manning and stick him behind an offensive line that can’t block.
The team the Jets faced Thursday night, meanwhile, has done what good teams with good coaches do: tailor their offense to their quarterback’s strengths.
The Ravens turned a team originally built for Joe Flacco’s more traditional style of play from just a year ago into one of the most impressive scoring machines in the NFL with Lamar Jackson. They hired Greg Roman, who helped make the pistol formation vogue with the 49ers and Colin Kaepernick and then turned a Tyrod Taylor-led Bills team into the 10th-best scoring offense in the league. Both offenses took what they had at quarterback and created an offense around him.
With Jackson, Roman and head coach John Harbaugh created a dynamic offense that expertly utilized the run-pass option (RPO) with a trio of running backs and package of plays that turned the Ravens into one of the best offenses in the league. They lead the league in rushing and could be the first team in NFL history to average at least 200 rushing yards and 200 passing yards per game. It’s a new-school look on an old-school philosophy, and the Ravens are riding it to the top of the AFC behind a quarterback many doubted.
Gase hasn’t done that with Darnold.
Darnold is not the speedster that Jackson is, but he is a mobile-oriented quarterback. For as much as Gase might not like to admit it, Darnold thrives when he uses his legs, either to move outside the pocket or around it. He has one of the worst passer ratings with a clean pocket, yet can make ridiculously-crisp throws on the run to receivers, as evidenced Thursday night and throughout the season.
Gase, though, likes quarterbacks who stay in the pocket. He had that with Manning in Denver and Jay Cutler in Chicago and Miami. Ryan Tannehill wasn’t and isn’t that type of quarterback, and it’s a huge reason why he didn’t work with Gase in Miami and why he’s excelling with the Titans. Tannehill is 6-1 as a starter, is second in completion percentage (73.4) in the NFL and is having his best rushing season since 2014, two years before Gase came to Miami.
Yes, a lot of Gase’s and Darnold’s struggles can be blamed on his supporting cast. It’s a tried and true mechanism to cover up Gase’s own mistakes: The offensive line is incredibly inept, injured and inexperienced and Darnold doesn’t have a true dominant offensive player that’s used effectively (this is the Le’Veon Bell dilemma the Jets currently face). But good coaches can make a good offense with a good quarterback. If the Jets feel like they have at least two of those three components, then they should have an offense able to score and win at will, no? Well, they’re 5-9, rank 31st in yards and 29th in points and don’t look close to being able to compete with the rest of the AFC East.
That’s on Gase. Darnold is a solid player. He’s made a lot of impressive throws during his short career even without much to work with. But when he’s forced to play quarterback the way Gase wants him to play, Darnold makes mistakes. Instead of trying to fit Darnold’s mobile tendencies into Gase’s idea of how an offense should be run, Gase should do what the Ravens did and build his offense around Darnold’s strengths.