Sam Darnold is facing a several week absence with mono, so who are the New York Jets turning to under center?
The anticipated Week 2 Monday night matchup between the first two quarterbacks taken in the 2018 NFL Draft will not be happening. On Thursday morning, New York Jets head coach Adam Gase said quarterback Sam Darnold could miss several weeks after being diagnosed with mono.
Darnold is going to miss next Monday night against the Cleveland Browns, and it can be assumed he’ll miss at least another game or two after that. So with Darnold out, perhaps for quite a while, who are the Jets turning to under center?
Before promoting Luke Falk from their practice squad, the Jets only had one other quarterback on their 53-man roster. Trevor Siemian will get the start Monday night, and he’ll presumably start however many games Darnold misses.
Siemian signed a one-year deal with the Jets during the offseason to replace Josh McCown as Darnold’s backup. He spent the 2018 season with the Minnesota Vikings, where he never saw the field behind Kirk Cousins. But the 2015 seventh-round pick out of Northwestern does have some starting experience.
Over the 2016 and 2017 seasons with the Denver Broncos, Siemian started 24 games as first-round bust Paxton Lynch could never quite usurp him. The best of those campaigns was 2016, when he completed 59.5 percent of his passes for 3,401 yards (7.0 yards per attempt) with 18 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and an 84.6 passer rating over 14 starts.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, as the starting quarterback now, Siemian came off as unconcerned about his lengthy layoff from regular season action.
I’ve been there and done it a little bit. It’s been a while . . . I’m champing at the bit to compete and be out there with the guys. I’ll just say I feel comfortable.
Running back Le’Veon Bell now looks iffy for Monday night with a shoulder injury, and it’s safe to say he’ll be operating at less than full strength if he does play. So an already depleted set of weapons, with wide receiver Quincy Enunwa (neck) out for the season and tight end Chris Herndon serving a suspension, is set to take another hit with Siemian now starting as the Jets try to avoid an 0-2 start. Oh, and who’s on the schedule in Week 3? The New England Patriots.