Sam Darnold breaks down hardest adjustment in NFL

New York Jets rookie quarterback Sam Darnold recently broke down his hardest adjustment as he transitions into the NFL.

As rookie quarterback Sam Darnold turned 21-years-old earlier this month, he’s getting used to life in the NFL. As the No. 3 overall pick of the New York Jets in the 2018 NFL Draft, Darnold has already put in work to hone his craft and prepare for the upcoming season all offseason long.

It won’t be easy but Darnold has already done several organized team activities and is well on his way to have a solid training camp. The starting quarterback job is up for grabs but at this point in time, veteran quarterback Josh McCown enters training camp as the starter.

Can Darnold beat the odds and dethrone McCown to be the new starting quarterback of the Jets come Week 1 of the regular season? That all depends on not only what he does on the gridiron but more importantly, his command and presence in the huddle before the snap.

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Darnold recently spoke about what his hardest adjustment has been from his collegiate career to now entering the NFL as a rookie which is what goes down before the football is even in his hands. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, his hardest adjustment for him has been preparing for what happens pre-snap.

In an article written by Darryl Slater of NJ.com, here’s what Darnold said about pre-snap routines:

“It’s been awesome to be able to call plays in the huddle. That’s something I hadn’t done for a few years. Being able to look everyone in the eye, call the play, go to the line of scrimmage with two plays, be able to kill a certain play or alert to another play, there’s different ways to call plays, too. So it’s all a learning experience, but it’s something that I’ve been really improving on.”

A learning experience, indeed. Darnold has the potential to be an excellent starting quarterback for the Jets but does have his work cut out for him. Ideally, it will take a month or even longer for Darnold to hopefully master the pre-snap routines that the Jets require him to execute in.

With mandatory minicamp this week as well as training camp towards the latter part of Summer, Darnold should get a lot of reps and practice in so he can perfect pre-snap routines. Once everything comes together and Darnold is able to master this, he can check off another item on his checklist before his eventual era under center begins.