FanPost

Less Interceptions, "I Couda Been a Contender!"


When the Jets drafted Ken O'Brien, I was very upset especially that the Dolphins took Dan Marino on the next pick, but the one thing that O'Brien had in his favor was a very accurate arm with very few interceptions in college that he carried into the pro's when compared to other quarterbacks. I was very pleased with the Jets trading up for Darnold, many experts had him on the top of their lists, and I would like to accept his early TD-INT of 10-10 as his growing pains on the big stage, and that he has the capacity to improve even though in his college career, he had 22 picks to 57 TD's.

When the Jets drafted Mark Sanchez, I saw his college stats of 10 picks against 34 TD's as quite a plus, but as his throwing the ball to his opponents increased, I thought of Richard Todd, the Jets failed answer to Broadway Joe because of the Alabama connection, who was the 6th pick in the draft and had a record in the NFL of 124 touchdowns to 161 interceptions. Todd had a much better record at Alabama of TD/INT because he played in the wishbone in contrast to Sanchez who played under the center, but once a quarterback, like Sanchez, starts throwing into the more sophisticated coverages of the NFL, I begin to see the handwriting on the wall of the nightmare of the Todd era. I am sure that Sam Darnold will never say the words that Richard Todd might say if he didn't throw so many interceptions, "I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contender," but even Todd could rationalize his situation by saying, "It could be worse, I could have been Browing Nagle."

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