Trade Talks For QB Darnold; What Should WFT Offer Jets?

The Washington Football Team has reached out to the New York Jets in a bid for Sam Darnold. What's the right price?

ASHBURN, Va. - If you can play QB, the Washington Football Team would probably have interest. Sam Darnold - maybe - can play QB.

READ MORE: Taylor Heinicke's Back! 

Darnold, 23, is the guy the Jets "had to have'' and they surrendered multiple picks to the Indianapolis Colts to acquire via the NFL Draft.

Yeah, another bad deal for a quarterback who hasn't quite panned out. Just remember that when you hear that an NFL team should do 'whatever it takes' to get their QB. No, no they shouldn't. 

Below is a comprehensive list of QBs drafted in the top 5 that were traded up for:

Sam Darnold
Mitchell Trubisky
Carson Wentz
Jared Goff
Robert Griffin III
Mark Sanchez
Michael Vick
Ryan Leaf
Jeff George
Steve Bartkowski

Don't reach!

— Paul Hembekides (Hembo) (@PaulHembo) February 11, 2021

Certainly, the Washington Football Team should not do "whatever it takes'' to get Darnold.

But in the Washington Football Team "reach-out'' to the Jets brass, what should the WFT do? Here's how we say the negotiations should start ...

READ MORE: NFL Draft Tracker

*Washington should try to offer one of their third-round picks and another mid-round pick. 

*If that doesn't work - for right now - they should consider their 2021 second-round pick. But we say that reluctantly.

*The more thought that is put into this, the more we believe: the WFT should not part with their No. 19 overall pick for any potential quarterback trade that doesn't feature the likes of Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson. 

READ MORE: What if WFT QB Room Stays Same?

Sam Darnold is not worth the No. 19 pick. Thinking otherwise smells like desperation; he's not established that he's good enough to be desperate for. 

With an admittedly moribund Jets team and a terrible coaching situation, Darnold completed less than 60% of his passes last year, 6.1 yards per attempt and a nine touchdown to 11 interception ratio.

In his career, he's a 59.8% passer. That's nowhere close to being good enough in today's NFL. 

Is Darnold salvageable? Probably. Is he even close to being a sure thing? Absolutely not. And that's the reason the Washington Football Team has to be extremely cautious with a full-throttle pursuit of Darnold. He hasn't earned that.

Washington needs to sort through the difference between "need'' and "needy.'' Ron Rivera, Martin Mayhew and Marty Hurney should approach these trade talks admitting to the first ... but not conceding to the second.