New York Jets Tanking for Sam Darnold in 2018 NFL Draft?

Tanking is hard, especially in the NFL, but are the New York Jets actually tanking for USC quarterback Sam Darnold in the 2018 NFL Draft?

Believe your eyes, because #ScamforSam is in full effect. If you listen to some theories out there, the New York Jets are preparing to tank the 2017 NFL season in hopes of landing the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and selecting USC quarterback Sam Darnold.

Can New York really pull this off, and should they? Are the Jets truly tanking the 2017 season for a shot at an unproven quarterback who may not warrant the first pick next year?

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, discuss the New York Jets in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

There are a lot of moving parts with this New York Jets theory. First of all, it’s tremendous. Tanking doesn’t happen in the NFL because, as just stated, there are way too many moving parts. Also, the bottom of the league is barely worse than the top of the league season to season. It’s not like the NBA where the bottom feeders will continue to suck for generations unless they obtain a franchise player. So tanking doesn’t happen in football…until now?!

Here is what New York has been up to this offseason: it released seemingly half its roster, including stars Brandon Marshall, Nick Mangold, and Darrelle Revis. There is some legitimate debate to be had that all or some of these names deserved to be cut regardless. Lumped together, though, it seems fishy how much talent and leadership the team willfully jettisoned.

More alarmingly is the lack of replacements who have been brought in. I like the Kelvin Beachum signing, but otherwise, the Jets have been pretty quiet. So they are dismissing starting players and replacing them with nobody. Hmmm. Then, to cap off the spring transactions thus far, New York signed Josh McCown for $6 million guaranteed to presumably be its starting quarterback.

McCown is not a particularly good player. He is never a healthy player. He doesn’t possess anything that would be considered a high ceiling or upside. If I were a curious fellow, I could make the assumption that signing McCown sets the Jets up for a certain level of play in 2017—that level being “low.”

Here is where the #ScamforSam pieces get tricky though. McCown is not terrible. It could be argued he’s actually an upgrade over Ryan Fitzpatrick. There is no guarantee he doesn’t improve the Jets offense from where it was last season. He also might not get hurt and could play all season. These would be major marks against a tank job.

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Also, and more importantly, we don’t actually know if Sam Darnold is that elite, nor if he will even be available in the 2018 NFL Draft. He is just a redshirt sophomore with less than one full season of game action under his belt. #ScamforSam requires such a high level of hope and risk that it seems impossible. Or, impossibly brilliant! No one suspects a tanking that is ridiculously misguided.

Dan Salem:

Tanking feels like such a dirty word, so lets call it rebuilding instead. I love what my New York Jets have done thus far in the offseason, bolstering their offensive line and filling a hole in the secondary, while jettisoning salary and players who want no part of a rebuild or tank job. I believe that rebuilding is a solid plan, while actually tanking for a single player, let alone the top pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, is increasingly impossible to pull off.

The Jets will not be a great football team in 2017, but they could certainly be better than they were last season. Despite the loss of Brandon Marshall, the receiving core is in tact and should get Eric Decker back from injury. The running game is also in tact, with additions to the offensive line only helping things. I also can’t help but agree that McCown feels like a near term upgrade over Fitzpatrick, depending on how long he actually holds the starting job.

All of these things are true as New York rebuilds, making an actual tank job very difficult. How can the Jets finish behind the likes of Cleveland, San Francisco, and Chicago in 2017? All three of those teams are ‘ahead’ of New York in the upcoming NFL Draft. All three need quarterbacks and at least one will also be tanking as #ScamforSam grows beyond the Jets franchise.

I’m not convinced Darnold is the answer at quarterback, we simply haven’t seen enough yet. But Deshaun Watson or Mitch Trubisky might be. I don’t love the grades for either player, but I do love what Watson accomplished at Clemson. Winning in the playoffs is extremely valuable experience that will translate into the NFL. Yet the Jets like to draft the best player availalble, so I expect them to go elsewhere with the sixth pick.

This supports the rebuild and allows for tanking when the season gets underway. But honestly, tanking can not be a plan. If New York plays its young quarterbacks in favor of McCown after a few games, namely Christian Hackenberg, they obviously are rooting for them to succeed. Until Hackenberg gets on an NFL field, we don’t know if he will do well or not. If he wins the starting job, then there is no tank job, at least not for Darnold.

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The truth is likely more boring than the pseudo reality of tanking. New York is rebuilding its roster and its image. They will draft a top 10 talent in the 2017 NFL Draft and, barring a trip to the playoffs, are aiming to draft in the top 10 again in 2018. Sneaking into the top five of the draft is incredibly challenging. The Jets stunk last season, yet still find themselves with the sixth pick. They defeated both the Browns and 49ers. In 2017 it will be far easier to lose those types of games with very few veterans on the team. But as a bad team, the Jets will have an “easy” schedule. Here’s to another five-win season, because winning only once seems highly unlikely.