It was the worst kept secret in the NFL Preseason. On Monday, the New York Jets finally spilled the beans. After winning the job outright with his performance during the Jets’ exhibition games and offseason work, rookie quarterback Sam Darnold will get the start in their Week 1 game against the Detroit Lions on Monday Night.
If you’ve followed GetMoreSports all through the preseason, you should have been prepared for this. Chris Gronkowski picked Darnold outright as the quarterback with the best chance of starting Week 1 weeks ago. I agreed with him, with only the caveat that Josh Allen had a solid chance to start with A.J. McCarron’s shoulder injury. It turns out, of course, that the Buffalo Bills sent McCarron packing and now Nathan Peterman is slated to start in Buffalo.
Here are the odds, as of this writing, BetDSI is offering on Sam Darnold’s total starts.
Over 6.5 (-130)
Under 6.5 (+100)
If you’ve ever looked for the fabled license to print money, I just handed it to you. Darnold is already the Week 1 starter on a team that’s in no real danger of competing for a playoff spot. Not only that, they traded their other starting-level quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, to the New Orleans Saints last week. On the New York Jets’ official website, they only have two quarterbacks listed in the depth chart, Josh McCown and Darnold. That means, barring Darnold just completely falling to pieces or getting injured, he’ll go the entire way.
Darnold will, as of Monday night, officially be the youngest opening day starting quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Jets head coach Todd Bowles seems prepared to ride the ups and downs of a rookie starter.
“The pains he gets that he needs to see, it will be an experience probably the first couple of years,” Bowles told the media Monday. “I don’t think as a player you ever stop experiencing things, the way he handles it and comes back from it and handles it in stride. We are trying to help the team win and we feel like he gives us a good chance to win. We’re not starting him because he’s a rookie and he’s not ready, we’re starting him because he gives us a chance to win the game.”
With Monday’s announcement, expect those start totals to move, but even if they hit 8.5 or 9, there’s no reason not to lay cash on the over. Unless there’s some kind of catastrophe, Darnold will start all 16 games.
With Darnold getting the official nod, it’s not a bad idea to look at the Jets’ win totals for a side bet. They were at an over/under of 5.5 before Monday’s announcement. I doubt it will move, but if you’re in love with Darnold, or think a rookie quarterback is a real problem, you could practically double your money by adding that bet. I still like the under, but Darnold will make it interesting in the Big Apple.
