Broncos can turn Sam Darnold into the next Ryan Tannehill
Sam Darnold was a highly coveted quarterback prospect back in the 2018 draft, and when the Jets pulled the trigger selecting him third overall, the Jets community probably thought Darnold was going to be the answer.
During his three year career thus far, Darnold has had spurts of showing greatness, much like Garett Bolles during his first few years in the league. I assume Jets’ans would get excited for a few games that Darnold is finally putting it together, then subsequently get let down when he would have a rough patch.
In 2019, the Jets hired Adam Gase and everything seemed to get much worse. Now, in 2020, Darnold looks broken, to put it mildly. As was the case with Ryan Tannehill, under Gases’ tutelage, Tannehill never played above a replacement level, but has exploded since with the Tennessee Titans.
If history tells us anything, Darnold is next in line to explode onto the scene, given he is (jet)tisoned out of New York.
And if this can be the case, John Elway needs to pick up the phone, yesterday.
I recently wrote for Predominantly Orange that the Broncos may consider bringing in a young guy to compete with Drew Lock, and one of the players I mentioned was Darnold. With the Jets in line to select first overall in the 2021 draft, they are poised to take Trevor Lawrence, who has been given Elway and Andrew Luck-type college hype.
While Darnold is a decent quarterback and was a solid prospect, he is no Lawrence. When and if the Jets do select Sunshine, Darnold will be traded, as he will have many suitors and is still a valued player.
A team will be taking a chance on Darnold; they will try to fix the bad habits he has picked up under Gase, and will hope to the football Gods that he can turn into the next Tannehill. There is solid evidence that he can, and for that reason, the Broncos should be interested in his services.
I’ll be the first to say that I am a huge Lock guy, but I would be thrilled if we made a move for a major veteran quarterback like Matthew Stafford, or gave a second chance to Darnold.
Gase clearly has been figured out, and will soon fall into NFL irrelevancy. He is constantly getting into arguments during press conferences, and has made various suspect comments. Not only that, there are a handful of players that have enjoyed better success after being freed of Gase.
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Tannehill is the most notable example. Now, this weird aura of suck around Gase and his players could simply all be a coincidence, and Darnold may join a different team and still not be very good, but there will be a team who desires his services, and will hope he is the next Tannehill.
The Broncos can offer Darnold a lot of what he did not have in New York. Denver has a solid running game, led by Phillip Lindsay and Melvin Gordon, a true TE1 in Noah Fant, and what will soon be the best wide receiver corps in the entire league, led by Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy. Not only that, the offensive line, outside of the uncertainty surrounding Ja’Wuan James, will be returning all of its starters in 2021.
If this does indeed happen, and Darnold flourishes elsewhere and overperforms Lock, many in Broncos Country will be sorely disappointed that Elway did not make the trade.
And I am sure he will be too. That’s why we should take a chance.