Sam Darnold

Fantasy Upside
It will be a key season for Sam Darnold as the Jets have not seen the quarterback or the success on offense they hoped for when the selected him as the third overall pick in 2018. New York still thinks he can be their franchise quarterback, so the opportunity is there for him. He did increase his completion rate to 62% and raised his passing yardage total to 3,082 yards. It was a small improvement from his rookie season. The Jets went out last season and got Le'Veon Bell to help the offense and drafted WR Denzel Mims in the second round in 2020 to give Darnold a deep threat.

Fantasy Downside
The numbers are below average and a massive improvement is needed by Darnold in order to start living up to expectations. Passer rating was 27th in the NFL. Passing yards per game was 24th. Interception percentage was 27th. Turnovers were a big issue for Darnold who threw 13 picks and lost six fumbles. It doesn't help that his receiving corp is below average and even with Bell, the running game struggled. If Darnold is going to improve, his other offensive players will have to make strides as well.

2020 Bottom Line
Darnold has not been a fantasy star in his first two seasons and we don't think that's going to change in 2020. We do expect the numbers to rise if he can play full season (missed 3 games in the each of the first two seasons). But it still will keep at the bottom of the list for starting quarterbacks. Darnold is going in the late rounds and if you want to take a flyer as a backup, it could pay off. But he ranks 29th overall which makes him a QB3 and he should only be on your team if you have deep rosters.