Mason Rudolph doesn’t expect the veteran quarterback in Pittsburgh to mentor him. Sam Darnold should expect the opposite in New York.
“The best thing I can do is look back in five years and Sam Darnold is in the Pro Bowl,” Jets quarterback Josh McCown told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News a day after Darnold became the third overall pick in the draft. “That would be the most satisfying thing. We’ll see. It’ll be fun.”
That echoes something McCown said on PFT Live in February. At the time a looming free agent, McCown said he welcomed the opportunity to stay with the Jets, to mentor a rookie quarterback, and to pass the baton to him at the appropriate time.
“At this age you have to welcome the young guys in and be able to share your knowledge with them,” McCown said on PFT Live. Now that it’s a reality, McCown isn’t wavering.
“Coaches will make those decisions on when [Darnold is] ready to play and when the time is right,” McCown told Mehta. “And I’ll support him whole heartedly. To me, that’s what it’s about. It’s about stabilizing this position for this organization. In the short term, if that means going out and playing games and winning games, then I’ll do that. If Sam shows himself ready to go and they make that decision, then I’ll support him 100 percent and be right beside him.”
That’s not how it usually goes. In most cases, it’s more like the supposedly “toxic” quarterback room Johnny Manziel encountered four years ago in Cleveland, because the rookie is coming in with the threat/promise of taking jobs. McCown is the exception, a guy who at this stage of his career doesn’t view the newbie as an enemy but as a teammate to be groomed to take over at the right time.
For all the dysfunction the Jets have experienced in recent years, McCown’s unequivocal willingness to embrace Darnold could help lay the foundation for the Jets to eventually compete to fill the void when another veteran quarterback in the AFC East who clearly has no interest in helping his replacement learn the ropes finally walks away from the game.