Getty Sam Darnold
The New England Patriots and Cam Newton have won three of their last four games and still have a chance to make it into the playoffs. That hasn’t stopped fans and media from looking ahead to next season and even finding the team another quarterback for the 2021 campaign.
Recently, the New York Jets’ Sam Darnold was mentioned in connection with the Patriots. While a good number of teams were listed as a possibility, the Patriots were among the clubs mentioned as a potential landing spot for Darnold if the Jets trade their franchise quarterback.
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Why Would the Jets Want to Trade Darnold?
As talented as Darnold is, and with as much upside as the 23-year-old, 2018 No. 3 overall pick still possesses, he has not been the answer to the Jets’ problems. In fact, the Jets are a league-worst 0-11 and seemingly headed head first to the top pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
That pick would seemingly be destined for Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence, who is considered by many to be a generational talent. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand, the Jets aren’t likely to keep two young franchise quarterbacks.
Instead, New York is far more apt to move Darnold to acquire assets while cinching their wagons to Lawrence for the future.
Why Might the Patriots Be Interested in Acquiring Him?
Some believe the Patriots won’t be satisfied with Newton as their starting quarterback in 2021. He’s had some ups and downs in 2021, and that has many calling for the team to move on from him now.
The only issue with that concept is the Patriots don’t appear to have a great deal of confidence in his backup Jarrett Stidham. The Patriots took Stidham in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft, and he was expected to succeed Tom Brady.
However, Brady signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rather than simply handing the job to Stidham in the offseason, the Patriots signed Newton and had a bit of a quarterback competition in training camp. Newton won and is the starter, but the 5-6 Patriots might still be in the market for a quarterback this spring.
SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano wrote the following in connecting Darnold to the Patriots:
All you need to know about Bill Belichick’s commitment to young Jarrett Stidham is that he went out and signed Cam Newton to run the Patriots in their first post-Brady season. There have long been rumors that Belichick loved Darnold in the 2018 draft. But there’s no way Douglas would even consider sending a franchise quarterback to the Patriots. It would be the most Jet-thing ever if he did that and Darnold went to New England and finally became a star.
Darnold still has the arm strength and mobility to become a star. He might need a change of scenery, but we’ll have to see if the Patriots are willing to relinquish the assets to bring him in–and that’s if they believe him to be a better option than Newton.