In his first game as a New York Jets quarterback, Sam Darnold caused a very good impression against the Atlanta Falcons as he completed 13 of 18 passes and threw for 96 yards and a touchdown.
The best thing for the young signal-caller is that during the whole game he looked decisive and knew where he wanted to go with the football. He made no major mistakes, normal for NFL rookies, as he did not have any turnovers of any kind during the whole time he was in charge of the offense.
He did that by cleanly getting the ball out of his hands, staying relatively conservative as he mainly attempted a lot of passes underneath and avoided taking many shots down the field.
He led the team in long drives and overall, he had very solid quarterback play and consequently may have the inside track to getting that starting position by Week 1 in front of Teddy Bridgewater and incumbent Josh McCown.
Darnold’s best plays (as shown in college) are when he’s reacting to the defense and against the Falcons, he managed several times to drift away from the pressure and delivered accurate throws to give his receivers the ability to get upfield and make a play to get first down conversions.
He shined on a 1st and 15 play from the Falcons 37 on a drive that started as a two-minute drive on their own territory. In that play, he stepped back from the shotgun and stayed in the pocket before reacting, in the face of incoming pressure, to secondary coverage and managing to get the ball in the hands of his open receiver cleanly for a first down.
On his only touchdown play of the night, Darnold looked impressive as he faced a third and goal from the Falcons 14 after a dropped pass in the end zone and an offensive pass interference call.
Darnold made a huge play by stepping through the pocket, escaping to his left and extending the play with his legs to throw while on the move as he kept his eyes up to deliver an accurate throw to the corner of the end zone.
All in all, a very good showing from Darnold with a lot of good plays that may earn him the right to get most of the first-team reps this week at practice.
