Bill Belichick takes shot at Jets amid Sam Darnold’s success with Vikings

Sam Darnold has the Minnesota Vikings at 3-0 at battling for the top of the NFC North. This is just months after an injury to first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy that was supposed to knock the Vikings out of any meaningful football conversation for the season.

Darnold has been a revelation for the Vikings, though, throwing for 657 yards and eight touchdowns through three games (with two interceptions), and he’s been so good that many are starting to see why he was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

He’s always had talent, and coming out of USC, he’s seemingly always had the pedigree to be a winner.

Why is he “hitting” now, though, rather than a few years ago when the New York Jets drafted him?

There’s certainly something to be said for maturity and the fact that it can take time to get it when playing quarterback in the NFL — we’re seeing that all around the league right now — but is there perhaps something wrong with the Jets’ ability to evaluate quarterbacks?

According to former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, everyone else who has worked with Darnold has loved him.

“Everybody has liked Darnold, expect the Jets,” Belichick said on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday, which led to a chuckle from the former Indianapolis Colts’ punter-turned-entertainer. “The people at Carolina that I talked to, they really liked him. He was at the Rams not for very long. They liked him. I think they wanted to re-sign him. Kevin [O’Connell] and some of the coaches in Minnesota, they really like this guy too. It seems like the only people who didn’t like Darnold were the Jets.”

“Right now the Vikings are one of the top two or three teams in the league..

Everybody has liked Sam Darnold except for the Jets” ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/Q6OadTmjwl

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 23, 2024

The Jets traded Darnold to the Carolina Panthers in April 2021 for several picks and they’ve already given up on Zach Wilson, whom they took with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021. 

New York is now onto the Aaron Rodgers experience, hoping that the soon-to-be 41-year-old quarterback can capture his former MVP form over the course of the season.

Meanwhile Darnold is not just surviving in Minnesota. He’s thriving.