There are many forces standing in the way of a Jets win when they play the Vikings on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
The first of those forces are the Jets themselves, given how clumsily they got in their own way (did anyone mention the word cadence?) during last Sunday’s hideous, 10-9 home loss to the Broncos.
A close second on that list is Vikings reclamation-project quarterback Sam Darnold — a familiar face, having been drafted third overall by the Jets in 2018.
By all accounts (except perhaps from only Darnold himself), the Jets failed Darnold in his three seasons with them.
They never put enough talent around him. They changed offensive coordinators. They changed head coaches. It all gave Darnold little chance to succeed in green because his three years with them were so chaotic.
Mark Sanchez, a close confidant of Darnold’s as well as someone who walked in his shoes (and vice-versa), knows chaos, because he lived it in his five years as a Jet. Sanchez, now an NFL analyst for Fox, was drafted fifth overall by the team in 2009, nine years before Darnold.
Sanchez and Darnold grew up nearby each other south of L.A. and live just a few doors away from each other in the same neighborhood — so close that Sanchez this week joked with Darnold that he was going to toilet-paper a large tree on his property for Halloween.
The ties between the two are uncanny. Both went to USC. Both were drafted by the Jets in the first round. When Sanchez welcomed his son, Daniel, into the world, he went to a parenting class conducted by Darnold’s grandfather.
Kevin O’Connell, Darnold’s head coach in Minnesota, was a groomsman in Sanchez’s wedding to actress Perry Mattfeld. O’Connell was a backup quarterback to Sanchez on the 2011 Jets.
Sanchez called the Darnold and O’Connell pairing a “great marriage.’’
“He’s such a humble kid and such a mild-mannered kid that somebody also had to elicit that dog inside of him, because it’s there,’’ Sanchez told The Post this week. “He’s a competitor and he wants to win, but you got to stoke that fire a little bit. I think O’Connell has done it in the right way, because they are similar with their personality.’’
As credit to his resolve, Darnold has survived, and now is a leading candidate as the league MVP for the way he’s playing for Minnesota, leading the NFL with 11 touchdown passes and passer rating at 118.9.
Darnold was traded to Carolina in 2021 when Robert Saleh was hired, and the Jets opted to draft quarterback Zach Wilson with the second-overall pick.
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Darnold spent last season with the 49ers as a backup before signing with the Vikings this past offseason — presumably to back up first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy, who injured a knee in training camp and was lost for the season.
Everyone needs a little luck.
Darnold’s fortune also came from the quarterbacking education he got from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan last season and now O’Connell. Those two coaches represented everything Darnold did not have with the Jets or Panthers.
“He went from a tumultuous environment with the Jets to the Panthers in Carolina, where that place was a circus, and then he gets to be with Kyle Shanahan for a whole year, to watch a really good player in Brock Purdy and finally learn a system with principles that would help him and a foundation that would help him wherever he went next,’’ Sanchez said. “He’s gone from playing pickup basketball in the park, and now he’s playing an organized system with a coach who’s done it for a long time, and good players around him.’’
For the first time, Darnold has players around him that are built to win. He has Justin Jefferson, one of the best receivers in the game, along with a strong offensive line, running game and a stout defense.
“He’s been shooting with a BB gun for a while, and now he’s got everything — all the bells and whistles, the sight finder, the night vision, the spotter,’’ Sanchez said. “This is the first time he’s had a full arsenal. He’s not shooting at cans in the backyard anymore.’’
Sanchez recalled a production meeting he had with Darnold in a Cincinnati hotel in November 2022, before he was to broadcast Darnold’s Panthers getting blown out by the Bengals. Darnold, frustrated by his circumstances to that point as a pro, conveyed his wishes to Sanchez.
“I just want to be in the situation where I have a chance, where I’m appreciated, where I’m pumped up and coached hard, where the team knows I’m the guy,’’ Darnold told Sanchez.
Sanchez’s message to his friend: “Dude, you’ve just got to hang in there, because you’re going to get a shot with a good situation.’’
Deservedly, Darnold has finally gotten that “shot’’ in that “good situation,’’ and he’s thriving.
Sanchez said he believes the hard times with the Jets “helped him, because he’s hardened, he’s calloused, he’s seasoned.’’
“He had to get somewhere where somebody reminded him, ‘Hey dude, there’s a lot of runway left, big guy. You have plenty of skills. You were drafted in the first round for a reason,’ ” Sanchez said. “It’s like relationships. You go from relationship to relationship, and it’s s–tty and it’s s–tty and s–tty, and then finally somebody who’s got their act together just takes you in and reminds you, ‘You’re beautiful. I love you. Let’s figure it out together.’ ”
Finally, it seems like Darnold has figured it out. And that may not be good news for his former team Sunday in England.
