The New York Jets announced on Thursday that quarterback Sam Darnold would be out for Monday night's game against the Cleveland Browns, but that doesn't mean Freddie Kitchens is changing his team's preparation.
With Darnold out, the Jets will send out Trevor Siemian to start, but Kitchens doesn't think a change in preparation is necessary because they have enough of their own things they need to clean up.
Article Continues Below“It was very evident, we don’t need to worry about who’s playing, who’s not playing,” Kitchens said, via the Akron Beacon Journal. “We’re going to prepare like we prepare. Nothing at all [will change]. We’re going to be focused on our preparation during the week the same as we would’ve been before. We’re going to try to get after the quarterback just like we did before. We try to affect the quarterback every way that we can, through coverage, through pressure.”
There is no question that Darnold gave the Jets the best chance to win, but Siemian isn't a slouch and the team will have a couple of days to prepare to get him ready. When Siemian was the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, they were 13-11 with him under center, and the Browns can't just assume this game is now a layup.
The Browns didn't look good against the Tennessee Titans, so it's probably a good thing that they are focusing on improving themselves first rather than try to change their game plan going against a different quarterback for the Jets.