Yahoo Sports Daily host Caroline Fenton is joined by former NFL quarterback and current Thursday Night Football analyst Ryan Fitzpatrick on behalf of Aruba. He talks about why Sam Darnold was never going to work with the New York Jets and the problems for quarterbacks in the Big Apple.
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Video Transcript
I, I do want to stick on, on Sam Darnold for a moment, because we were all so quick to label him a bust.
We wrote him off, he was a backup, and then now here he is quarterbacking the Super Bowl, the betting favorite to be Super Bowl MVP.
We’ve seen Daniel Jones have such a wonderful career renaissance.
We’ve seen Baker Mayfield do the same.
Are we not patient enough with quarterbacks in the NFL?
You know, it just wasn’t gonna work in New York.
They just didn’t have the infrastructure around him.
Mm-hmm.
There are very few quarterbacks, you know, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, that you could put in any situation and they would be successful.
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There are very few guys on Earth that are like that.
You’ve got some other guys like Sam Darnold, if you surround him with the right stuff, then he certainly has the talent.
He’s got the, now the scar tissue, everything he’s been through, to be able to handle those adverse moments.
And so it just wasn’t gonna work with the Jets, ’cause what was around him wasn’t gonna work with the Jets.
But I think the smartest thing he did, when he went to San Francisco to be a backup- Mm-hmm … he just wanted to insert himself into that McVay-Shanahan tree.
He wanted to figure out what that offense was w- all about, to sit back and learn.
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And really, he’s talked about it, to learn from Brock Purdy- Mm-hmm … you know, a guy that’s younger than him, but a- Yeah … a guy, the way that he thinks about the game and sees it, it was a huge year for him to be able to sit back and have that.
And Clint Kubiak was there- Yeah … in San Francisco, so now they find themselves in the Super Bowl together.
There are so many Jets fans looking at Sam Darnold and what he’s been able to do, Minnesota last year, Seattle this year, and think, “Why couldn’t this be us?”
Why is that?
Why is- Yeah … New York not a place where quarterbacks can thrive?
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Well, I, I think with the Jets, it’s, it’s draft a quarterback high, and then figure it out, right?
Mm-hmm.
Where I think where we’ve seen success, and Seattle’s a great example of it, is- … let’s build a team.
Let’s build a nucleus and a core of guys that are really talented, that play well together, and let’s insert a quarterback into that.
You’re joining us on behalf of Aruba.
Tell us a little bit about what you got going on- Well, we have these lovely T-shirts … and our fancy shirts!
Right?
so I’ve been married for almost 20 years, and my wife and I rarely get away.
we have seven kids, and so it’s very difficult.
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So we decided, let’s go to Aruba, just us two, and it just, it just doesn’t happen very much.
And so we picked a very special place.
They call it One Happy Island, and we learned that right away when we got there.
The white sand beaches were beautiful, hotels, clean, safe, awesome.
But then it was the adventure of exploring the island, going on hikes.
There was a natural pool we went swimming in.
We did some snorkeling.
And just a place where you go, and even after we left, there’s like a lightness about you.
You feel refreshed, you feel rejuvenated.
And so we made the right choice, and we even, like, had I wrote, I wrote down things to talk about, ’cause it was like, “What did…” This is like a first date again.
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Like, we, we haven’t just- it hasn’t been us two without the kids in a long time.
Yeah.
Like, the conversation was good.
We fell in love all over again- Oh, how special … so it was awesome.
Yeah.
Sounds beautiful.
I need a beach trip.
Yeah.
I need to- Aruba’s a good place … sign myself up for that pretty soon.