NY Jets: Sam Darnold will miss Week 6, Joe Flacco to start again

NY Jets’ quarterback Sam Darnold will miss yet another week and Joe Flacco will start again.

The NY Jets had hoped that the 2020 season could be used to evaluate young quarterback Sam Darnold. Unfortunately, that plan has been temporarily derailed by a nagging shoulder injury.

Darnold sat out last week while dealing with a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder and he’s set to miss a second consecutive week, per his head coach.

Adam Gase spoke to reporters on Wednesday in a highly-anticipated press conference following the release of star running back Le’Veon Bell. But after the Bell conversations came and went, Gase provided a few updates on injured players.

One of those players was Darnold who Gase revealed would once again miss this week with a shoulder injury. That means that veteran Joe Flacco will be called on to start in Week 6, much like he did a week ago.

Darnold suffered the shoulder injury in Week 4’s Thursday night matchup against the Denver Broncos. The 23-year-old signal-caller was brought down hard following a first-quarter sack from linebacker Alexander Johnson.

Although he stayed in for a play, it became apparent that Darnold was favoring his shoulder. Flacco would come in to replace him only for Darnold to return two plays into the subsequent series.

Darnold remained in the game for the rest of the night and to his credit, it didn’t seem as though the injury negatively impacted his performance very much. Nonetheless, the post-game injury report revealed that Darnold was likely to miss time.

Sam Darnold’s injury is just the latest blow to a struggling NY Jets team.

And here we are. Now, he’s set to miss his second consecutive week and it’s unclear if Week 7 is even a viable return date.

For the Jets, the 2020 season has been nothing short of a disaster. An already-abysmal roster has been combined with arguably the worst coaching staff in football to make for what could be perhaps the worst team in NFL history when all is said and done.

Things have gotten that bad. And injuries to the likes of Darnold, Mekhi Becton, and Denzel Mims — just to name a few — have stripped the team of any and all optimism in this desolate disgrace of a season.

No one knows how long Darnold will be out. But for the time being, it’s the Joe Flacco show in New York.

I guess it’s better than Luke Falk.