In a move that had long been expected, the Jets finally made their decision on the future of the quarterback position, trading Sam Darnold to the Panthers for three draft picks on Monday.
New York had been hesitant to commit to Darnold after three underwhelming seasons with the team, and Peter King of NBC Sports believes the team took the right deal at the right time and got just about all it could for a former third overall pick that hadn’t lived up to expectations.
“I understand why the Jets did it,” King told Moose & Maggie on Tuesday. “I think Joe Douglas got very good compensation for a guy who a lot of tarnish had come on his game, much of it without justification because the jets put such a lousy team around him in his three years, but he hadn’t played well either.”
Despite Darnold posting quarterback ratings of 77.6, 84.3 and 72.7 over his three seasons, with at least 11 interceptions in each season, the Jets were able to get a second and fourth round pick from Carolina in next year’s draft, as well as a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft. The return is enough for King to consider it a win for the Jets, who can now turn their focus to the draft and Zach Wilson, the team’s very likely pick at second overall.
“I was very impressed that they got the equivalent…of a fairly early second-round pick,” King said. “There’s a lot of people in the league right now looking at this and looking at next year’s draft as a lot more valuable than this year’s. Not necessarily because of the players involved, but you’re going to have so much more knowledge. A lot of these guys opted out last year.”
The Jets seem to have their quarterback of the future locked up, but after trading Darnold, King believes the team still has work to do at the quarterback position beyond drafting Wilson. The team needs a veteran presence to help groom Wilson into the quarterback of the future, and that should be near the top of New York’s checklist for the rest of the offseason.
“I think Joe did a good job,” King said. “Having said that, if they draft Zach Wilson, who are they going to get as his Alex Smith, like Patrick Mahomes had? They’ve got to get somebody in there to help this guy. You can’t go from a guy playing a middling schedule in year one in a very good college season, to come in and be the QB of an NFL franchise on day one without having some insurance. That’s going to be a job that Joe Douglas cannot take lightly.”
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