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It’s no secret that playing quarterback in the Big Apple is one of the highest-profile gigs in the National Football League. Players such as Eli Manning and Joe Namath have parlayed success in New York into endorsement deals and stardom.
But New York is also a pressure cooker. Struggle there, and the hook can come quickly. Fans and the media won’t be even a little bit shy about stating what they think of substandard play.
To date, the Jets’ Sam Darnold and the Giants’ Daniel Jones have avoided feeling the full brunt of New York-style criticism. (It’s got a thin crust and comes with a lot of “fuggedaboutit!”) But with Darnold about to enter his third season and Jones his second, both players face increased expectations in 2020.
It raises the question: In the NFL’s most pressure-packed market, which young signal-caller faces more pressure in 2020?
Sam Darnold
On the surface, this appears to be an easy callfor a couple of reasons.
The first is an obvious one: Darnold has been in the league one year longer than Jones. The third season for a young quarterback is a make-or-break one. By next spring, the Jets will have to decide whether to pick up Darnold’s fifth-year option or admit that trading up to third overall to select the former USC star in 2018 was a mistake.
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His results have beenmixed. As a rookie, Darnold looked a lot like a rookiehe threw for only 2,865 yards, tossed just two more touchdowns than interceptions and posted a 77.6 passer rating. But he established momentum as the season wore on, raising hopes that year two would be better.
Those hopes lasted as long as hope usually does with the Jets.
After a pedestrian effort in last year’s season opener against the Buffalo Bills, Darnold missed a month with mononucleosis. In his second game back, he had as bad an outing as a quarterback can have11 completions in 32 attempts for 86 yards and four interceptions in a blowout loss to the New England Patriots.
Things got a little better down the stretchhe actually finished his campaign with a 7-6 record. But at season’s end, his numbers were again subpar: 3,024 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and an 84.3 passer rating.
However, even after two so-so seasons, Darnold still has his supporters. As a matter of fact, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky went so far as to say he’d take Darnold over any quarterback in the last three classesincluding 2019 MVP Lamar Jackson, per Brian Costello of the New York Post:
“I love Lamar Jackson. He is a superstar, but if you mean to me that if Darnold went to a team with a top-five run game and some pretty darn good skill players and a scheme that was absolutely perfect for him and a top-five defense, we wouldn’t think of him differently? We’re in a team where it’s not 20 years ago when quarterbacks make all these other guys better. The other guys make the quarterback better because of the timing and the space of football and the matchups. If I had to take a guy in the last three draft classes for the next 10 years, it would still be Sam.”
The Jets took a buzz saw to one of the league’s worst offensive lines in the offseason, adding veterans George Fant and Connor McGovern and drafting Louisville tackle Mekhi Becton in the first round. That can only help Darnold’s development in 2020.
The receiving corps is another story, thoughrookie Denzel Mims has loads of potential, and free-agent addition Breshad Perriman is coming off a career year (36 catches, 645 yards, six TD), but with Robby Anderson gone to Carolina, the Jets don’t have anything resembling a go-to wideout.
It’s not exactly a prime situation for a young quarterback. And while new backup Joe Flacco has said all the right things about mentoring Darnold, he’s also made it no secret he believes he can still start.
Daniel Jones
The first two years of Darnold’s career have featured as many downs as ups. It’s been a different story for Jonesto an extent.
In the first full game of his NFL career last year, Jones threw for 336 yards and two scores (with two rushing touchdowns) in a wild comeback win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He passed for 322 yards and four touchdowns in an October loss to the Detroit Lions. Jones hit 308 yards with four scores in November against the Jets. And he passed for 352 yards and five scores in a December win over Washington.
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That last performance was the first time in NFL history that a rookie quarterback threw for five scores without an interception in a game. By the end of his inaugural season, Jones had passed for 3,027 yards and 24 touchdowns. Both are franchise rookie records.
Still, it wasn’t all sunshine and puppies for Jones in his debut season. He won just three of his 12 startsin no small part because turnovers were a major issue. In addition to tossing a dozen interceptions as a rookie, Jones also led the NFL with a staggering 18 fumbles11 of which he lost.
Per Michael Eisen of the Giants’ website, Jones said he’s well aware he has to get better at taking care of the rock:
“That’s a fundamental skill that for the quarterback position, that’s something that’s crucial but also to me a fairly simple fix in that it’s a mindfulness, being intentional with securing the ball, having two hands on it. When you’re moving, when you’re having to adjust in the pocket, you’re maintaining that security. I’m trying to emphasize that, doing different drills and making sure that I’m always cognizant of that and being very intentional in that.”
To Jones’ credit, according to Nick Shook of NFL.com, Jones didn’t always fold under pressure. In fact, he was one of the league’s 10-best quarterbacks at passing while under it.
“Jones’ numbers were comparable to those of Matt Ryan, which should signal to Giants fans that, hey, they might have another guy like Eli! Manning secured two Super Bowl rings, of course, while so far we’re talking here about Jones’ 8:6 TD-INT ratio under pressure and nearly 1,000 passing yards. Many rookies have fared much worse when the blindingly fast NFL pass rush threatens to swallow them whole on a per-down basis. Kudos to the kid from Duke.”
In wide receivers Golden Tate, Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard, tight end Evan Engram and running back Saquon Barkley, Jones has much better passing-game weaponry at his disposal than Darnold. There’s also no veteran backup breathing down his neck, ala Flacco with the JetsBig Blue’s No. 2 is journeyman Colt McCoy.
But Jones is also playing for a new head coach, Joe Judge, who had nothing to do with drafting him, and learning a new offense under coordinator Jason Garrett that calls for more downfield passesan area where Jones struggled somewhat in 2019, according to Pro Football Focus (via NJ.com).
If the Giants flounder again in 2020 and the general manager (Dave Gettleman) who took so much flak for drafting Jones sixth overall in April 2019 gets fired…
Welcome to New York.
The Verdict
There’s one more factor that has to be consideredone that makes this a closer call.
The pressure on Darnold and Jones didn’t start equal just because they share a stadium and were both top-10 picks.
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New York is a Giants town.
That may well have as much to do with Big Blue’s success in the 21st century as anything (the last time the Jets played in the Super Bowl was over half a century ago), but a survey conducted in 2016 found that the Giants were a significantly more popular team than the Jets. As a matter of fact, statewide, the Buffalo Bills were more popular than Gang Green.
That stings.
Popularity brings profile. But it also brings pressure.
However, when you add all the factors, it’s still no contestDarnold is the “winner” here. He has one more NFL season under his belta season that didn’t go especially well. Darnold’s second-year stats look a lot like those of Mitchell Trubisky’s third season in Chicago in 2019. The Bears just turned down Trubisky’s fifth-year optionand he has a 12-4 campaign and division title on his NFL resume.
If Jones turns the ball over with regularity again in 2020 and the Giants have another bad year, then he may find himself in a precarious spot in 2021. Thing is, it’s the position Darnold’s already in. Flacco might not be a real threat to unseat Darnold this year (barring catastrophe), but unless Darnold shows significant improvement this season, there’s a chance the Jets will decide he’s not the franchise quarterback they hoped he would be.
Darnold’s Big Apple pressure cooker is cranked up to the highest setting in 2020.
The Jets finally “won” something.
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