Adam Gase is keeping his fingers (and toes) crossed Sam Darnold will be medically cleared and ready to prepare for a road game against the Eagles in Week 5. The second-year signal caller revealed Tuesday the team's medical staff estimates he will indeed be fully recovered from mononucleosis and able to play after the bye in Week 4.
"I think it's realistic," Gase said Wednesday about getting his quarterback back in time for the test in Philly. "But we're at the mercy of what the doctors tell us. They're going to do what's right by him to make sure that nothing ... This is something that is serious. If his spleen bursts, we got a problem. So, we got to make sure that he's right and safe to be able to play."
The Jets wisely won't accelerate his return, but the Jets could sure use Darnold after what will almost certainly be a loss in Foxborough on Sunday. Darnold returned to the team facility on Tuesday and will be an observer at practice. Gase isn't yet sure whether the quarterback will travel with the team to Foxborough due to potential flying restrictions.
If Darnold wants to avoid ordering Italian food and watching the game from his Jersey apartment, it might behoove him to embark on a four-hour road trip to join his teammates at Gillette Stadium. Deshaun Watson once made a 12-hour bus ride from Houston to Jacksonville last year due to flying restrictions associated with rib/lung injuries. (Watson started and won that game, in case you were wondering).
Gase was unsure when doctors and trainers will clear Darnold for conditioning and throwing, but he believes there's real value in having the centerpiece in the offense back in the building.
"He can do the mental things right now," Gase said. "Him being in the building, I think he enjoys it because I think he was going a little stir crazy sitting in his apartment away from everybody. The fact that he's into the game-plan talking with Luke (Falk) and Dowell (Loggains) and myself. Any time he's watching football, learning football, kind of learning how the defense is going to play us and how we're going to attack them, I think it's a positive thing."
