One of Joe Douglas’ big Jets regrets has a chance to look worse.
The Jets trading Sam Darnold to the Panthers for a haul of draft picks means he gets to reunite with former teammate Robby Anderson. Douglas let Anderson get away in free agency last year, leaving Darnold without one of his favorite targets. Now he’s risking that duo takes off elsewhere after Anderson had the best season of his career in 2020.
Carolina, however, has to hope Darnold and Anderson can reconnect on the field better than they did with Gang Green. Anderson, 27, excelled away from the former USC star last season, catching 95 passes for 1,096 yards and three touchdowns with Teddy Bridgewater mostly under center. He did catch six touchdowns from Darnold, 23, in 2018 and five a year later, but never recorded more than 779 yards receiving in their two seasons together.
Douglas admitted they may have miscalculated the free-agent market. Anderson signed a two-year, $20 million contract with Carolina last offseason.
“I’ve thought about Robby a lot. As you guys know, there’s thousands of decisions that come across your desk throughout the year and I go back and I look at what I could have done better in specific situations,” Douglas said at a press conference in November when asked if he regretted letting Anderson go. “I thought our guys really did a fantastic job of really analyzing every position group’s market value leading up to free agency last year and I think what was wrong with us and Robby, we thought that Robby’s value was going to be even greater than what he signed for in Carolina.
“I think that’s on me ultimately and that’s on us moving forward to get a better handle on every player’s market value. Honestly, we would all love to see Robby here doing what he’s doing and I tip my hat to the success he has, but obviously we don’t want to be in the business of losing big players.”
Darnold and Anderson’s relationship was brought into question last season after Anderson replied with a thinking and frowning emoji to a 55-second video of Jets quarterbacks, including Darnold, missing him when he was open during his tenure. The undrafted wide receiver quickly put that to rest.
“I ain’t throwing shade Sam my boy we jus ain’t connect f I hate missed opportunities wats da issue?,” Anderson wrote. “Da jets wasn’t my only choice comin out undrafted I felt it was da best fit.”
With the Jets likely to take BYU quarterback Zach Wilson with the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Darnold and Anderson will get a chance to see if they can create the level of success on the field that escaped them in New York. If could add even more regrets for Douglas if Wilson doesn’t pan out.
