Sam Darnold struggled in his first few seasons with the New York Jets although it wasn’t exactly his fault. Thanks to some horrendous coaching and personnel decisions, Darnold didn’t have much to work with and most of the time, the Jets were just setting him up to fail. Recently, the Jets decided to move on from Darnold and traded him to the Carolina Panthers, where his future appears to be much brighter.
While being interviewed for the team’s website, Darnold admitted that he thought he would in New York forever and that being traded kind of hurt. Regardless, Darnold feels much better now and he believes his new future in Carolina could lead to some big things.
“Those conversations were tough. I imagined I was going to be the franchise quarterback of the New York Jets for a long time. And once you realize that the team that drafted you is moving on, it stings a little bit,” Darnold said. “The culture that’s being set here is amazing. That’s probably the part that intrigues me the most about this…To go from being unwanted to being wanted is huge. Getting that news that you’re going to be traded, of a team saying, ‘Hey, we didn’t want you,” for whatever reason, is hard.”
For now, the Panthers have seemingly improved and if Darnold makes the best of his second chance, he could very well have himself a lengthy career.
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