Sam Darnold—who says he spent more than two months not knowing whether he’d still be the Jets quarterback admitted yesterday that—now that it’s over—he’s got mixed emotions.
“There’s a little bit of both—relief and excitement,” Darnold says. “There’s been so much uncertainty this offseason, not knowing what your future was going to look like, that was hard. . . . But now that I’m in Charlotte, I’m excited, and yeah, I guess I am kind of relieved to be here.”
The relief came after some “tough” conversations with his agent regarding the possibility of being traded to Carolina.
“I imagined I was going to be the franchise quarterback of the New York Jets for a long time,” Darnold said. “And once you realize that the team that drafted you is moving on, it stings a little bit.”
The fact that the Panthers wanted Darnold took away some of the bite.
“To go from being unwanted to being wanted is huge,” Darnold said. “Getting that news that you’re going to be traded, of a team saying, ‘Hey, we didn’t want you,” for whatever reason, is hard. . . . But right now, I feel great about it, and I’m excited to get here, and get started.”
As they search and search and search for a franchise quarterback, there’s no guarantee that the Panthers won’t decide after only one season to move on from Darnold.
Source: NBC Sports