When the New York Jets surrendered three second-round picks to move up from No. 6 to No. 3 in the 2018 NFL Draft, we all knew their intentions: They were going to pick a quarterback. You don't surrender that much draft capital to move up for a running back or a lineman or even a defensive end. You do it to solve an decades-long issue at the game's most important position.

The Jets have cycled through quarterbacks on a seemingly annual basis over the years. Hoping to put an end to that never-ending cycle, New York selected USC's Sam Darnold with the No. 3 overall pick on Thursday night. Darnold is the fifth quarterback the Jets have drafted in the first round since Joe Namath was taking the snaps. 

The Jets took Richard Todd with the No. 6 overall pick the year before Namath left. Todd lasted eight seasons in New York but never really distinguished himself and was wildly interception-prone -- even adjusted for his era. Next came Ken O'Brien, who the Jets took with the No. 24 pick in 1983. O'Brien lasted nine seasons in New York and both he and the Jets had more success than Todd; but O'Brien never necessarily felt like a franchise QB, either. 

In 2000, the Jets took Chad Pennington with the third of their four first-round selections. Pennington sat behind Vinny Testaverde for two years, then went on to have a solid but unspectacular six-season run under center for New York. The Jets made the playoffs a few times but never felt like all that much of a threat to the Patriots or Colts at the top of the AFC. After Pennington came Mark Sanchez, another USC passer. The Jets as a team experience great success with "The Sanchize" under center early in his career, but that success was almost all due to the exploits of their defense, which was one of the best in the NFL. Sanchez was a marginal passer, at best. Once the defense fell off even a little, Sanchez was exposed, and the Jets dropped back to the bottom of the standings. 

In the years between those QBs and since the end of the Sanchez era, the Jets have relied largely on veteran stopgaps. Guys like Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich, Neil O'Donnell, Testaverde, Ray Lucas, Brooks Bollinger, Brett Favre, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Josh McCown have captained Gang Green's offense, but there was never really any illusion that any of them represented the future. Mid-round selections like Geno Smith and Browning Nagle have been given that label over the years, but expectations are never as high for second-rounders as they are for top-of-the-draft selections. 

Darnold will come to New York with the weight of those expectations on his shoulders. The Jets still have McCown, and they signed Teddy Bridgewater this offseason as well, but at the very first sign of trouble, fans will be clamoring to see Darnold under center. 

He excelled when thrown into the fire as the face of one of the marquee college football franchises, putting together a spectacular redshirt freshman season in 2016. Darnold lit up college football that year, completing 67 percent of his passes while averaging 8.4 yards per attempt and throwing 31 touchdowns against only nine interceptions. He tore up the field against Penn State in the Rose Bowl and entered the 2017 college football season as one of the inner-circle candidates for the No. 1 overall pick. 

His sophomore campaign represented a slight step backward as Darnold struggled with decision-making and turnovers. He got picked apart all year, as consensus top QB prospects often do. Whatever flaws were apparent, they led to two teams passing on Darnold, who for a while this offseason seemed like the guy who would go No. 1. Instead, he slid to No. 3, and the Jets are the team tasked with finding a way to tap into what made Darnold so great in 2016, while minimizing the things that led to those criticisms in 2017. 

It's clear Darnold has the talent and the poise and the traits necessary to be a franchise QB. He's shown that on the field -- even in his down year in 2017. But the Jets have had quarterbacks with all the talent and poise and traits before, and things have not necessarily worked out as planned.

For this era of Jets football to be different than those of the recent past, the entire organization has to be 100 percent invested in crafting their team around the things Darnold does well. From here on out, it's all about doing everything possible to put him in position to succeed. After that, it's up to him to take advantage of his surroundings.