New York Jets: Quincy Enunwa injury a blessing in disguise?

Quincy Enunwa will miss a chunk of time due to an ankle sprain, but this could be a blessing is disguise for the New York Jets, especially Sam Darnold.

Ian Rapoport of NFL.com is reporting that the injury that New York Jets wide receiver Quincy Enunwa suffered in the win against the Indianapolis Colts will leave the Jets without him for 3-4 weeks. That means he could return as early as Week 10, but maybe not until after the bye when the Jets play the New England Patriots.

A blow like that would be tough for Gang Green, because he’s the best receiver on the team. That said, it doesn’t have to be a devastating blow. In fact, it’s not as huge a blow as people may look at it.

Sam Darnold has developed a rapport with Enunwa. So, the first inclination is that an injury like this would hurt the young quarterback. When you look at the game from Sunday, though, the injury came early on in the action and Darnold didn’t miss a beat.

Going into the game, Enunwa was the most targeted Jet. In fact, no other receiver had even half as many targets as Enunwa. While it’s good for the young quarterback to have a go-to guy — someone you can trust when you need him the most — it may have been a bad thing for Darnold to rely so heavily on Enunwa.

Without Enunwa there, he’s going to have to find a new guy to go to under duress, and that’s actually a positive thing for Darnold. Now he might develop a rapport with another receiver and he can have multiple go-to guys he can trust. That can only be a positive thing moving forward for the rookie.

Sure, as Rapoport said in his tweet, a source referred to it as “Not ideal,” but that’s not painting this with a broad enough brush. It’s about the big picture, and the long-term view may be better for this team without such a presence. The development of Darnold was the most important thing for the season, and this injury is just the next step in his development.