When we one day chronicle The Life and Times of Sam Darnold, if all goes as planned, there will be a watershed moment in his career trajectory when he begins beating the elite teams.
He isn’t there yet, nor should we expect him to be.
It’s been a feel-good story, young Darnold winning the job as one of our Boys of Summer along with Saquon Barkley, doing phenom things and providing hope that maybe, finally, there will be Life After Joe Namath, five Jets decades later.
But only seven games into his NFL career, Darnold can’t do this by himself.