“I’m seeing ghosts.”
Jets fans, that was your franchise quarterback, Sam Darnold, during Monday night’s, Week 7 debacle against the New England Patriots.
The second-year, 22-year-old passer burdened with the expectation of franchise savior looked like a JV quarterback and was completely overmatched against the NFL’s best defense.
Darnold completed just 11-of-32 passes for 86 yards while throwing four interceptions and losing a fumble.
Quite a drop-off compared to the week prior when he led Gang Green to an upset over the Dallas Cowboys.
The thing was, most of Darnold’s struggles weren’t his fault.
New York’s offensive line was the definition of abysmal as Adam Gase’s shuffling did little to protect the young Jets passer.
Chuma Edoga was forced to move from right to left tackle to fill in the void left by the injured Kelvin Beachum, who is week-to-week with an ankle injury. It forced Gase to put Brandon Shell back in at right tackle after losing his job earlier this season.
Backup left guard Alex Lewis was also playing in his third-straight game while Kelechi Osemele continues to recover from a shoulder injury that could need surgery; which has become an issue between player and franchise.
They even saw veteran center Ryan Kalil — whose better days are clearly behind him — leave during the second quarter with an elbow injury. That’s after he suffered a shoulder injury during the week.
The results were disastrous as the Patriots were constantly in Darnold’s face on Monday night. It’s rather remarkable that they only came away with one sack.
New England did little to hide their intentions throughout the night, sending their “zero blitz” time and time again with little resistance.
The “zero blitz” is a defensive alignment that has zero deep defenders with pass protectors playing in man-to-man coverage.
While it opens the door for big plays over the top, a heavy pass rush in which six or more players are sent in on the quarterback throws off the passer’s timing and doesn’t allow for any of those big-time connections to develop.
Thanks to the Jets’ sieve-like offensive line, Darnold was forced to get the ball out of his hands quickly, which led to catastrophic results.
It could lead to far worse results in the future — and I’m not talking about on the scoreboard, either.
The Jets’ offensive line is setting up Darnold to not only fail but to take a beating in the process. It exposes the short-sightedness of management to not make a priority out of protecting their franchise quarterback, thus limiting his opportunities to achieve long-term success in the NFL.
If the Jets are truly committed to the development of Darnold, the No. 1 thing on their to-do list this offseason is to completely overhaul the offensive line and spend their first-round draft pick on protection in the process.
If the Jets continue to perform how they did on Monday night, it’s going to be a pretty high pick.
