Sam Darnold Wants To Get Back On The Field This Week

New York Jets rookie, and their third pick from this year’s draft, Sam Darnold, said that he wants to play this week against Tennessee Titans.

The young quarterback stated that he feels ready, and wants to start this game. He was attending practice in uniform this Wednesday, for the first time in three weeks. Still, Darnold didn’t get the first position among the quarterbacks during the session. No.1 was Josh McCown.

When asked afterwards how he feels, the youngster responded.

“Feeling good, feeling really good. It felt pretty normal,” he said. There were times where I felt my feet weren’t quick enough, but that will come with a couple of more practices.”

The 21-year old stated that he already tries to convince his medical staff and head coach Todd Bowles to let him play. His desire to appear at LP Field is huge.

“I mean, yeah,” he said. “I want to play really bad. But at the same time, I understand it’s a process.”

But Bowles, who is not a type of guy who could be easily persuaded into something, is not very optimistic when it comes to Darnold’s appearance this Sunday.

“He looked limited.” 55-year old told the reporters after the practice.

Coach Bowles speaks to the media after practice No. 1 of Titans prep https://t.co/5LCEKxMBVo

— New York Jets (@nyjets) November 28, 2018

And when you think about it for a second, he does have a point from some perspective. Darnold did confess that he did felt a “little bit” of soreness in his right foot, which was injured back on November the 4th against the Miami Dolphins.

Now, if one of the biggest projects of your franchise has problems with some injury which didn’t heal entirely, why bother risking. The game is not that important for the Jets anyway, and exposing Darnold to some kind of potential injury would be stupid.

His replacement Josh McCown is doing a solid job, and Darnold stated that he liked watching his older teammate, and that he always tries to learn something new from his game.

“Every time Josh goes in there to play, I learn something from him,” he said. “He’s been doing it for a long time.

McCown was also limited this Wednesday, because of his right-thumb issues and back pain. In the loss against the New England Patriots, the veteran quarterback threw for 276 yards, one touchdown and one interception. But his completion percentage was not that good, with only 57.8%, 26-of-45.

https://twitter.com/FirstDownFR/status/1066761848505188357

Darnold threw 1,934 yards since the season started, for 11 TD’s and 14 interceptions, which is the league-high at the moment, and something he needs to correct in future. As a starter, the former USC has three wins and six defeats, beginning his career with a road victory over the Detroit Lions, 48-17.

Coach Bowles also wants to save his young quarterback from all the pressure and hype around him. Keeping Darnold on the bench might be a good thing, to learn how to behave and how to be more mentally stable, because that is the biggest problem for this kid. The ultimate proofs are his interceptions and also, his passer rating which is second to the last in the entire NFL. With 68.3 the only one worse is Josh Allen.

Jets (3-8) are dead last in the AFC East without any chances to reach the postseason. The upcoming two games they have are on the road. One against the Titans, whose defense is superb in some moments this season, and the second one is in Buffalo.

May experts said that Darnold needs to be a bit more patient, as he only has 21 years, meaning that he will have enough time to play. The future is ahead of him.