Exceeded my expectations. I was worried about his mechanics, long motion, but it really doesn’t matter bc he gets the ball out fast even with the long motion. He’s shown legit growth in 6 weeks. Hard not to be excited.
he met my expectations, but thats not neccisarily a good thing, since my expectations were under 60% completions and a 1:1 TD:int ratio. alot of good things... mobile, posed, good feet in the pocket... but inaccurate and turnover prone with a mediocure arm. im not sure if he can turn into an accurate mobile game manager, like say alex smith, if he can it will work out.
He can make every throw. Are you saying his upside is Alex Smith? If so, I couldn’t disagree more. We’ll see.
He can make every throw. so can alot of QBs. but making every throw and making it with zip is a big difference. you look at mayfield or mahomes and they also can make all the throws but will be less turnover prone on passes down the field or towards the sidelines due to have good to great arm strength as opposed to darnold who has just an average arm. this held him back in college as well, when trying to make plays down field or on the sidelines in tigher window she would often be off target or turn it over. those were my 2 big concerns with him coming in to this draft. i still think it was the right move to take him, but i still see those as big concerns/question marks. he obviously has a ton of time to improve. its not that alex smith is his upside, its that alex smith is probably the best version you could hope for... that he turn into more of a game manager with mobility as opposed to a gun slinger. as a gunslinger i think he would end up more of a jay cutler/turnover type then say a matt stafford. and alex smith isnt a bad thing... i mean 68% completions, 4000 yards and 26 TD vs just 4 ints.
He zipped it in pretty nice on the Pryor td. I disagree wholeheartedly, his arm is plenty strong enough. Disagree with basically everything you said. Have a good night and go jets.
Darnold is doing a great job! The game never seems too big for him which most rookies struggle with. Really reminds me of the poise Russell Wilson had his rookie year in 2012 where he almost willed the SH to victory against ATL in the Wild Card. I’m all in with SD14!
Darnold is 21 and still working on his mechanics. He'll never have Mahomes's arm but in a couple years his arm might be stronger than Mayfield's. And it's already stronger than Alex Smith's.
Wanna see long motion? Go watch Blake Bortles vids and you’ll puke . Use to follow the Jags real closely and watching him made me sick . Sam Darnold is light years better than Bortles. So now we wait and enjoy being a perennial playoff team that may go to the SB faster than we think.
If every NFL general manager was polled, the majority would rate USC’s Darnold as the top quarterback in this class. To that, Shonka’s rebuttal is this: Have you watched him play? “Darnold, he’s like a cow on ice,’’ Shonka said. “His footwork is all over the place. His feet in the pocket are embarrassing. When you turn the ball over [35 times] in 26 games, you’re intellectually dishonest when you’re talking about bringing in Sam Darnold as your next savior. This guy opens his hands over the ball, it just drops out when he’s in the pocket. If you look at his film, they talk about his accuracy. Actually it’s his receivers making great catches for him, laying out for the ball or going high. I’m not saying he’s never going to be a quarterback, but right now he’s a long way away.’’ So, HEY Shonka, go fuck yourself and hand in your ex-scouts card you fucking BUST.
Sam Darnold is a starter for years we got that position settled unless some freak injury happens , we need to surround him with talent next year.
What I notice is that he needs to do a better job stepping into throws. Sometimes he straight up arm throws it and it loses velocity. The pick yesterday was a good example.
It truly amazes me how much better he's gotten since college. - has fixed his fumbling issues so far (knock on wood) - Quicker release, stronger arm - Making better reads He's right about where I thought he would be. Need to continue to build around him.
Are we talking velocity or for distance? For distance sam is a notch below elite level.He can make any throw including over the top likely 70-75 yards or so..thats w plenty of air & a top on the ball. Velocity wise..likely the same deal as for distance. Espn sports science covered this & said his velocity is among the elite of the elite.I wouldnt go that far but he can certainly fire it in there when he needs to. This is a guy that obviously was coached to deliver catchable balls w touch. He knows how to take something off it but still has the torque for tight windows as we saw on the Pryor TD yesterday. He does have some balls float on him..which is due to the footwork which right now is his biggest area for improvement
Darnold seems to be right in the sweet spot for velocity. If that's anyone's only concern you've got nothing to worry about. (that's not to say he's a guaranteed Hall of famer etc...just that his velocity is fine) Throwing velocity of other top qb's in 2018 nfl draft https://www.ourlads.com/story/default/Quarterback-Ball-Velocity-at-2018-NFL-Combine/10241/dh/ darnold 56.5 mph when he was 19-20 years old
I'll be honest, I'm completely baffled that anyone has this opinion after watching him in college (maybe you didn't) and then watching his first 6 games in the NFL (starting to think you didn't).
This I've noticed and that's something I feel like will work itself out once he gets the feel for the speed of the game. Yesterday's pick to me was a prime example of panicking because of a bad snap and the defense coming. There's been nothing in the first 6 games that looks to me like something that will stick around for good.
Having a ton of velocity doesn’t matter if you don’t know how much of it to use. Browning Nagle comes to mind. That 60 must be Browning Nagle.
One word: YES. I'll even go with exceeded given his age and experience. It's like a 16 year old with a driver's permit and no GPS driving all the way from CA to NY and not getting lost. ; )
very impressed. he's had his ups and downs as a rookie as expected but he's also had some amazing games and is doingmuch better then the other 3 playing. allen had 1 good game but has been shit since and got hurt, mayfield shredded us but hasn't looked good since then and now has back to back rough weeks and can't move his offense, and rosen looks better then bradford and looked goo in his first start but didn't look good yesterday at all. darnold is also the least limtied of them, he's running a full offense and not playing in a system to help him out