NEW YORK _ Sam Darnold's forgettable start to the season has officially taken a turn for the worse.
Adam Gase confirmed a Daily News report that the injured Jets quarterback will not play against the Cardinals this weekend, opening the door for veteran Joe Flacco to make his first start for his new team.
Darnold, who suffered a separated throwing shoulder (aka AC joint sprain) after getting sacked on the second drive of the Jets' primetime loss to the Broncos that dropped them to 0-4, will miss the seventh game of his young career. Darnold missed three games as a rookie with a foot injury before sitting out three more due to mononucleosis last season.
Gase said that the young signal caller is "week-to-week."
History has shown the life without Darnold can be rough. The Jets are 0-6 in games the former first-round pick has missed.
"He's in a lot of pain," Gase said Wednesday. "He can only raise his arm a certain degree. To go out and practice, it would be very difficult for him."
The News reported Tuesday that the Jets plan was to rest Darnold this week rather than take a reckless approach of trying to throw him back out there.
The team allowed the signal caller to return to the Denver game after X-rays at the stadium revealed no broken bones.
"At that time, guys thought that that was the right thing to do," Gase said about the decision to put Darnold back into the game. "He wanted to go back in. They knew what it was. Obviously after the game, the next day, he was a lot more sore than he was in real time. They weren't worried about further damage. Really it's just it would be hard for him to really go practice this week. We want to just be smart with him. We want to try to get him to feel better."
Darnold, who has thrown just three touchdowns with four interceptions and a league-low 5.7 yards per attempt, made it clear on Monday that he wanted to play. But the team never seriously considered that as an option, sources told the News on Tuesday.
By every objective measure, Darnold has regressed in his third season _ and second with Gase, who was hired to bring out the best in the former No. 3 overall pick.
"I'm looking at it right now as hopefully he gets better quickly and he doesn't miss too much time," Gase said. "I think it's a different situation than last year for sure where he was out of the building. He couldn't be around anybody for I think it was like 10 days or something like that. Here, he's in the meetings today, he's going to be able to go and practice and be around, be locked in in that way."
Meanwhile, the 35-year-old Flacco, who was active for the first time last week after coming back from offseason neck surgery, will take over an offense that ranks 32nd in total yards, yards per play, first downs, passing yards, punts per play and 31st in scoring, total touchdowns and percentage of drives ending in a score. Gase's offense is 26th in rushing.
