LOS ANGELES – Speculation is circulating every day about what will happen to Sam Darnold. Will he play with the Jets again in 2021? Will it be changed? Everyone wants to know.
Meanwhile, the subject of that endless radio-sports discussion is quietly dealing with his off-season business around the Southern California home.
According to close confidants, Darnold, who has three years in a career in the Jets, has been anything but a success since he was ranked 3rd overall in 2018, he has managed his career uncertainty with the same maturity that managed it -adversity on the ground.
Jordan Palmer is a longtime friend of Darnold and is also his off-season coach, the founder of QB Summit, a widely known training program that has helped develop people like Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson and Josh Allen.
Palmer, in an exclusive interview with The Post, during a break from one of his beach training sessions last weekend in Dana Point, California, remains extremely optimistic about Darnold’s career.
“I am just as biased, but I will keep it [bleeping] real here: I have more confidence in Sam at this point in his career that he will reach his potential than I did three years ago, “Palmer said.” He was petrified by how difficult his first three years were and some of the challenges he had. ”I saw him grow up a lot with the way he handled it.
“It’s a new situation for him. He hadn’t been on a non-winning team. He has always been a very good player on a very good team. And that’s not how the first three years shook with the Jets.
“I think Sam is one of the most talented young defenders in the league and, like all good, talented defenders, he needs to have a great off-season and improve.”
Palmer praised the way Darnold finished the last two seasons, going 6-2 in the last eight games of 2019 after the team started 1-7 and went 2-1 last season after starting 0-13 .
“My logo is a summit, a mountain range,” Palmer said. “This is your journey. I haven’t seen a defender go from the bottom up – perfect, wonderful, at the end of the championship, all the money and congratulations. What men need to do is navigate their journey. ”
Former Jets defender Mark Sanchez is another close friend of Darnold, who was also coached by Palmer and still works with him occasionally. Sanchez said his interest in the Jets remains strong “because of Sam.”
“He is my neighbor, I love the child and I want him to do well … and he is in horror,” Sanchez told The Post. “I was literally where he was – his shoulder hit, trying to fight the wounds, he’s playing, he’s not playing? We have a similar situation – two children who grew up next to each other on the street. ”
Sanchez’s career arc has been the opposite of Darnold’s so far, as Sanchez had the best success from the start and fought later. Sanchez’s hope is that Darnold’s career is an inverted version of him.
“We entered the league on two very different teams,” Sanchez said. “Sam was recruited at a high level because the team was not good last year. I was recruited because they changed for me and they were 9-7 years old before I got there. So I have to go to a team that had a lot of talent and an extraordinary offensive line. “
Sanchez said he “always gives some of my advice” to Darnold, reminding him, “Man, I’m here for you.”
Sanchez, like Palmer, is convinced that Darnold’s best football is in front of him, but he believes the best could come with a change of scenery. Sanchez lived in a Jets world where fan perceptions become entrenched and can’t survive.
However, Sanchez believes Darnold wants to stay with the Jets, start his new regime with the new coaching regime, head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur.
Palmer is torn on this subject.
“Part of me wants Sam to finish what he started and understand it, and part of me would love to see it change the landscape, because I’ve seen it work so well for others,” he said. Palmer. “This league is a league at the right place and at the right time and a league at the wrong place – at the wrong time. The right guy in the right situation has a chance to be in the mix at the end.
“It hasn’t happened to Sam yet, and it will. And I can honestly say that the right time should be this year with the Jets. Or it could be somewhere else. “