By Darryl Slater | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The Jets on Monday, after an off day, held their eighth day of training camp practice. It was the fifth practice of camp for rookie quarterback Sam Darnold, who is battling with Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater for the Week 1 starting job. Let's go ahead now and bring you some Darnold takeaways and observations from Monday. The Jets' preseason opener is Friday at home against the Falcons.

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Noah K. Murray | USA TODAY Sports

Darnold missed training camp's first three practices, due to a contract holdout.

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HOW DID DARNOLD LOOK IN MOST RECENT PRACTICE?

Click here for our Darnold takeaways from Saturday's Green and White scrimmage at Rutgers. He played pretty well in that scrimmage.

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DARNOLD'S DAY 8 STATS

55 reps (17 with starting offensive line), 15-of-27 passing, three touchdowns, zero interceptions

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THE GREAT STUFF

He started practice 5 of 5, but went just 10 of 22 after that, to close practice. Still, he threw three touchdown passes and had no interceptions, while working mainly with the second and third string. On one of Darnold's touchdowns, he found a wide-open Trenton Cannon at the goal line, on a short pass. On another, he rolled right, threw well on the run (no surprise), and connected with Charone Peake, who ran in. Same thing happened on Darnold's third touchdown, to Clive Walford. The Darnold-to-Cannon touchdown was particularly impressive because, even though Cannon was wide open, Darnold did a nice job of quickly going through his reads. Cannon appeared to be his final read on the play.

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Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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THE GOOD STUFF

In addition to the touchdowns (and no picks), Darnold also showed quick release and nice timing on a pass over the middle to Robby Anderson. We have mentioned Darnold's throwing ability on the run over and over. And he continued to showcase it on Monday.

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THE BAD STUFF

This was Darnold's fifth practice and it was probably his second-worst overall, after his first practice (when you could excuse the rust). Not a huge deal here, in terms of Darnold having an uneven day. He didn't have any turnovers at all, which is important. But he just wasn't as sharp as he has been. If he is good enough to be the Jets' starting quarterback, in the end, one uneven practice isn't going to derail him.

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THE UGLY STUFF

It's not like Darnold had a dreadful practice Monday. Just uneven, as we mentioned. No other way to describe a practice in which he completed just 10 of 22 passes to close it out, after a strong first segment of team periods in which he started 5 of 5. Some of Darnold's notable misses Monday: behind Anderson on a deep route (nearly intercepted by Rashard Robinson), badly off the mark for either Terrelle Pryor or Jermaine Kearse, almost picked off by Lorenzo Mauldin while facing backfield pressure, and a terrible overthrow to an undetermined target. Yes, Darnold did have a couple throwaways under pressure, too.

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HOW DID JOSH MCCOWN DO?

Limited action for him, as the Jets' coaches wanted to get Bridgewater and Darnold a bunch of work, particularly as Darnold catches up after missing the first three practices (contract holdout).

McCown had 10 reps (all with the starters) on Monday and completed 3 of 6 passes for a touchdown and zero interceptions.

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Darryl Slater | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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HOW DID TEDDY BRIDGEWATER DO?

He got 32 reps (16 with the starters) and completed 9 of 15 passes. No touchdowns, but also no picks. Extensive work for Bridgewater with the starters on Monday. By our rough count, he had just 20 first-team reps in all of camp before Monday. And then he got 16 on Monday. He had a couple bad, low passes, plus one that sailed high. But he also threw a beauty of a deep ball to Anderson, who got past Juston Burris and Terrence Brooks. Overall, an OK enough day for Bridgewater, but nothing spectacular.

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IS DARNOLD PROGRESSING?

The Jets' coaches like how Darnold responds to adversity. Well, after Monday's uneven practice, let's see how he comes back on Tuesday. It's worth noting that Darnold worked extensively with the backups on Monday (55 overall reps and 17 with the starters), and backups are more prone to mistakes. So that can be a mitigating factor. No reason to go nuts — one way or the other — about one great or uneven practice. It's about noticing trends in training camp.

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WHAT DARNOLD HAD TO SAY

Darnold can't wait for his preseason debut Friday night against the Falcons.

"I'm really excited," he said. "It's also about being able to get rid of the ball in a timely manner, being able to process that information, because we're live. This will be the first time that we're able to get hit. So there is no security blanket on us."

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WHAT TODD BOWLES HAD TO SAY

Why did Bowles give Bridgewater and Darnold so much work Monday in practice?

"They're going to play [preseason] games," Bowles said. "And I didn't see enough work Saturday [in the scrimmage]. So we needed more work today on certain situations that Josh has been through."

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Darryl Slater | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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DARNOLD'S TOTAL CAMP STATS

160 reps (40 with starters), 44-of-76 passing (57.9 percent), seven touchdowns, two interceptions

(Team periods stats only, in five total practices for Darnold, compared to eight for the other two quarterbacks.)

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MCCOWN'S TOTAL CAMP STATS

182 reps (all with starters), 68-of-102 passing (66.7 percent), six touchdowns, zero interceptions

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BRIDGEWATER'S TOTAL CAMP STATS

229 reps (36 with starters), 72-of-109 passing (66.1 percent), three touchdowns, zero interceptions

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OVERALL THOUGHTS ON DARNOLD'S DAY 8 PRACTICE

Darnold clearly takes this stuff seriously. He was visibly frustrated with himself after several bad throws Monday. He knew this wasn't his best day, even if he was practicing with a bunch of players (especially the offensive linemen) who aren't going to make the 53-man roster. Again, let's see how he bounces back Tuesday. It wasn't the worst practice in the world for him, in his fifth session. But it was uneven, especially compared to how he had been practicing lately.

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Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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SO WHO LEADS QB BATTLE?

Still McCown, followed by Bridgewater and Darnold. Presuming the latter two play a lot more that McCown in Friday's preseason opener against the Falcons, could Bridgewater or Darnold make a move up the depth chart? It's possible. The second preseason game will be big for all three of these quarterbacks.

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Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.