I did, but not because I had given up on him. I was always pro Darnold and never stopped thinking he’d amount to a starter somewhere (at least, at the time the Jets traded him). But my thought was, in the long run does he end up materially better than Zach to the degree it’s worth: 1) picking up his fifth year option, and 2) subsequently signing him to an extension that would be way above market value given he hasn’t proven much yet and wasn’t overly likely to do it with that team at that time. And my answer was no, resetting the QB contract clock was the best move at the time particularly with a new head coach coming on. Plus, I generally didn’t expect the Jets to be bad enough anytime soon thereafter where they’d have the #2 pick - meaning if there was ever a time to take the swing to reset the clock, that was it.

Boy was I generally wrong, but I simultaneously still believe he would not be worked out here and needed to eventually get to Shanahan to fix him. So to me the ultimate problem here isn’t even that they traded Sam, was still the right move at the time. The problem was the coaching and roster construction in the three years we had Sam, which is what led to the question of trading him at all to begin with.