Sam Darnold Trade Rumors: Value for Jets QB Revealed After Carson Wentz Deal

The Philadelphia Eagles' trade of Carson Wentz may have been the final nail in the coffin if the Jets were still hoping to land a first-round pick for Sam Darnold.

Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.tv reported the Wentz deal reinforced the prevailing wisdom around the league that the best the Jets can hope for in exchange for Darnold is a second-round pick plus an additional selection somewhere in the middle of the draft.

The Colts traded a 2021 third-round pick and a 2022 conditional second-round pick to Philadelphia for Wentz. The 2022 selection will become a first-round pick if Wentz plays 75 percent of the snaps next season or 70 percent of the snaps and the Colts make the playoffs.

Darnold's NFL resume pales in comparison to Wentz, who looked like an above-average NFL quarterback before falling apart in 2020. The USC product failed to progress in any of his three NFL seasons, posting a 13-25 career record as a starter while throwing for 8,097 yards and 41 touchdowns against 36 interceptions.

Wentz was the only quarterback in the NFL last season who ranked worse than Darnold in Football Outsiders' DYAR metric. Darnold has ranked as one of the NFL's worst quarterbacks in nearly every advanced and traditional metric in each of his first three seasons.

While some of those issues are not totally Darnold's fault—the Jets have had the NFL's worst skill-position group and arguably the worst coaching staff in the league during his brief career—he's also not been able to overcome those obstacles with his play.

The Jets have an advantage over the Eagles in negotiating a Darnold trade given that he is still under his rookie contract. It seems unlikely that Darnold's new team or the Jets will pick up his fifth-year option, but he at least has one year remaining on a cost-controlled deal that would make him a decent buy-low candidate.