Round one of the NFL Draft was this past Thursday and to the surprise of no one, it was an eventful night.\u00a0 Widely recognized as the consensus number-one pick, USC quarterback Sam Darnold did not receive a phone call from the Cleveland Browns.\u00a0 Instead, Heisman Trophy winner, Baker Mayfield, heard his name come off the board first leaving many, from fan to analyst, in shock.<\/p>\n
The NY Jets had previously traded away the number-six pick and three second-rounders to the Indianapolis Colts to move up three spots in the draft; a move scrutinized by football fans everywhere.\u00a0 However, the Browns made Jets GM Mike Maccagnan’s job even easier.\u00a0 After the Giants selected Penn State running back Saquon Barkley with the second pick, the Jets were able to steal Darnold at three.<\/p>\n
Could Darnold be the quarterback that the Jets have been searching for since Namath?\u00a0 Is he good enough to bring \u201cthe other New York team\u201d a Super Bowl?\u00a0 Truth be told, we won\u2019t know at first.\u00a0 The Jets still have four other quarterbacks on the roster, two of which will likely be cut.\u00a0 On top of previous draft picks Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg, the Jets signed Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater in free agency this offseason.\u00a0 McCown is considered by many to be the Day 1 starter.\u00a0 Bridgewater has by far the most upside of any of these four names and was signed to a one-year deal.\u00a0 Simple deduction: Petty and Hackenberg will be looking for new homes before camp.<\/p>\n
The Jets certainly hope that Darnold is their quarterback of the future, especially since Tom Brady will likely retire in the years to come.\u00a0 The Jets, Bills, and Dolphins are all looking for ways to dethrone the Patriots as the King of the East.\u00a0 The Jets solution?\u00a0 Break a nine-year stretch of drafting a defensive player in the first round and finally take a top-end prospect on the offensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n
Darnold isn\u2019t perfect.\u00a0 None of the quarterbacks in this year\u2019s draft class are.\u00a0 However, the goods far outweigh the bad with the now former-USC quarterback.\u00a0 Darnold was an early Heisman favorite before having a stretch of games that Jets fans would be wise to forget.\u00a0 Ball security can be an issue as well as the amount of times he is willing to take shots down field into tight coverage.\u00a0 One guy with similar issues early in his NFL career?\u00a0 Andrew Luck.\u00a0 Darnold has been tied to Luck as a pro comparison and if you\u2019re a Jets fan, that\u2019s not a bad place to start.<\/p>\n
The 6\u20193\u201d, 221 pound, 20 year-old is still young and is going to continue to grow.\u00a0 The Jets find themselves in a favorable situation.\u00a0 They have the ability to start McCown, keep Bridgewater on deck, and develop Darnold.\u00a0 Truth be told, a quarterback taken so early won\u2019t likely sit for long.\u00a0 However, the pressure can be taken off Darnold early as he becomes acclimated to the league.\u00a0 As far as being the savior of New York, that is yet to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Round one of the NFL Draft was this past Thursday and to the surprise of no one, it was an eventful night.\u00a0 Widely recognized as the consensus number-one pick, USC quarterback Sam Darnold did not receive a phone call from the Cleveland Browns.\u00a0 Instead, Heisman Trophy winner, Baker Mayfield, heard his name come off the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":899,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}