NFL Draft: Grading each 2018 first-round pick after Week 11

3. New York Jets: Sam Darnold, QB

After he was supposed to be in consideration at No. 1 and No. 2, Sam Darnold finally heard his name called with the third overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. The New York Jets believes to have finally found themselves a franchise cornerstone and they ended up naming him the starter before Week 1.

Darnold didn’t disappoint in his first start, leading New York to a win over the Lions. After a solid outing in a loss to Miami the following week, people started wondering aloud if Baker Mayfield was a mistake at No. 1 — which clearly wasn’t fair at the time since he hadn’t seen the field. As fate would have it, the two went head-to-head in Week 3 and Mayfield led the Browns to a comeback win over the Jets after filling in for an injured Tyrod Taylor.

Since then, things have only gone downhill for Darnold. In nine starts, he’s won just three games and even with missing his last start, Darnold leads the NFL with 14 interceptions heading into Week 12 — including a four-interception outing in his last start which was a 13-6 loss in Week 9.

That was a huge knock on him at USC as well as Darnold had a terrible time keeping the ball secure. That’s something he clearly needs to work on going forward because no team can win with the type of turnover issues he’s shown.

Grade: C-