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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Sam Darnold met Joe Namath for the first time on Friday night, in a moment shown on the scoreboard for everyone to see.

The Jets should've made that moment even bigger. They should've had Namath hand Darnold the torch.

Because the time has come for the Jets to officially anoint their first true franchise quarterback since Namath left town more than 40 years ago. It's going to happen sooner or later, and it should happen now. The 21-year-old Darnold has done everything the Jets have asked him to do this summer. He's been everything they expected.

So Todd Bowles should end this unnecessary mystery and reveal the worst-kept secret in the NFL. He should name Darnold his starting quarterback for Opening Day.

It seems inevitable, even if Bowles insists on waiting until after the final preseason game. He's been treating Darnold like his starter all summer long. He's been getting most of the first-team reps in practice. He started the last two - and the two most important - preseason games. And on Friday night, in the preseason game that is most like the real ones, Darnold played into the third quarter.

Let's face it: If Bowles isn't going to hand the job to Darnold, then he's done a terrible job of getting his actual starter ready for the first game.

He's not neglecting Teddy Bridgewater or Josh McCown, of course. This has been the Summer of Sam. The Jets invested heavily to move up for the third overall pick in the draft and were thrilled to land the top quarterback on their board. They believe Darnold will be great. That's not even a question. This summer has just been about soon he'll be ready to begin that quest for greatness and how comfortable Bowles will feel riding a rookie quarterback from the start.

So how comfy is he? Bowles won't say officially. But he certainly sounds impressed.

"He did everything we've asked him to do (this summer)," Bowles said after the Jets' 22-16 loss to the Giants on Friday night. "He's learning from his mistakes. He's seeing things as he goes. As a rookie, you're going to get in the game and no matter what a coach or veteran tells you, you're going to see things for the first time. You're going to have to make football decisions. The more he plays, the quicker the football decisions come.."

And that, right there, is why the best thing for the Jets is not to delay the Darnold Era at all. The more he plays, the quicker he'll process all the information he needs to succeed, the faster he'll make decisions, and the better those decisions will be. Yes, he can learn from watching McCown or Bridgewater play. But there is no better experience for a young quarterback than to play.

Darnold will struggle at some point. All young quarterbacks do. But that'll happen whenever he makes his NFL debut. Isn't it better to get those struggles out of the way now? Why wait a few games, or a year, or more so he can hit the ground running like Aaron Rodgers did after spending three years watching Brett Favre? The Jets don't have a Favre. They have temporary place-holders at quarterback. Starting them and sitting Darnold is a waste of precious time.

No, Darnold's preseason numbers don't suggest he's ready to look like a Hall of Famer from Day 1. For all the good he did against the Giants, he was only 8 of 16 for 86 yards and a touchdown. In three preseason games he's 29 of 45 for 244 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. That's a fairly mundane passer rating of 83.9.

But look beyond that at some of his best plays on Friday night and his veteran-like explanations for what happened. Look at the 3rd and 13 when the pocket collapsed around him and "the internal clock was kind of going off," he said, "and I saw some room in front of me and decided to go for it." He rushed for 15 yards and a first down.

Look at the seventh play of the game, when he was facing a 3rd and 8 and noticed Giants linebackers Alec Ogletree and Ray-Ray Armstrong at the line of scrimmage, showing blitz up the middle. Darnold said he "just thought that one of them wasn't going to be able to get out to the tight ends" so he audibled, "gave a little signal" to tight end Neal Sterling, and then watched as Sterling beat Armstrong to the outside and caught a 13-yard pass for a first down.

Or look at his 12-yard touchdown pass to Terrelle Pryor in the second quarter. The play called for him to hit tight end Chris Herndon on a post. Herndon was covered, but open enough where Darnold "thought I could've maybe squeezed it in there." But rather than force it and risk a mistake, he said "I knew I had a shallow coming to me". That was Pryor streaking across the middle on a crossing route. He made the safe choice to go to his second read and give his playmaker a chance to make a play, which is exactly what Pryor did.

Yes, it's a small sample size. Yes, it's preseason. But those are veteran plays, veteran thoughts, veteran explanations. Eli Manning making those reads and those plays in his 15th season isn't a big deal. But for a 21-year-old whose experience at quarterback consists of about a season and a half in high school and not even two full seasons in college, that's incredible.

If that's what Darnold can do with limited experience and just parts of three preseason games, imagine how good he will be when he really learns how to play.

So Bowles can continue to play this game if he wants, saying he has a "good feeling" of what he wants to do at quarterback but refusing to publicly pick his guy. But it's time for the torch to be passed. It's time to start the clock. The Darnold Era is dawning and Bowles shouldn't need another week or another preseason game to make it official. He should declare what seems so obvious: That Darnold has won the starting job.

Because if that's not Bowles' final answer, it should be. Starting anyone else would be a mistake.

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