"With the third pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, the New York Jets select . . . Sam Darnold, quarterback, USC."
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell welcomed Darnold to the NFL with those words on April 26, 2018, and the two men shared the obligatory bear hug on a makeshift stage at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Wearing a navy blue suit, a brown tie and a Jets cap, Darnold began his career with unbridled optimism as the quarterback who might finally rescue the Jets from years of disappointment and maybe, just maybe, be to this generation of Jets fans what Joe Namath was to a previous one.