I think it may well be time to move on from Sam, but seeing how well a rookie is playing is not the reason why. Lots of rookie QBs impress out of the gate. If Burrow is taking the levels of punishment you guys are mentioning, then he may get gun-shy, beaten down, limited by injury. Other teams may work him out and start gameplanning more to stop him, and in a couple more years we could be saying look how the Bengals ruined him. We were almost all excited by Sam in his rookie year and most of us thought we'd found our franchise QB.
Joe Burrow already has as many 300 yard passing games as Darnold does for his entire career. And he has something that Darnold doesn’t....a 400 yard passing game. Burrow also has the same number of 3 TD games as Darnold...2. Darnold does have a 4 TD game to his credit. Sure, they’re cherry picked stats, but awfully ugly ones for Darnold all the same.
I don't dispute the facts at all - Burrow looks very good. But I've seen quarterbacks regress, especially ones that get sacked as often as Burrow is getting sacked. It's too early to be sure. I would absolutely be excited to have him on my team and Bengals fans must be hopeful, but let's see how things go for him.
Nasty injury suffered by Burrow. The Bengals got their guy and then failed to protect him. He took 72 hits in his first nine games, tied for most by a rookie in the last 20 years, apparently. You let your quarterback keep taking hits, and eventually he isn't going to get up again. We need to be aware of this if we do get a new QB next year. It cannot be new QB and everything else defense, like I've seen reported. We need to get a line to protect whoever is under centre. I hope Burrow comes back as strong as ever, but a lot of people saw this coming.
The problem is Sam hasn't really had the coaching nor the supporting cast to develop as he should have. Not a big fan of USC Qb's anyway but in this case, just like Sanchez, its better if Sam moves on to his next team and gets some good coaching instead of the bullshit he was forced to deal with here. Put Sam behind a NFL calibre OL with real talent outside and we might have seen an entirely different Darnold.
And yet Darnold is far more mobile than Flacco. That time when Bosa nearly caused a fumble, Flacco was stood there like he thought he had all day! Is the line improving a little? So many elements in play...
I completely agree, but if we get a new QB and everything else remains unchanged we'll just give another masterclass on ruining an NFL prospect. Gase and his entire coaching staff should not get a single day with our new quarterback. Not single HOUR.
Miami's brand new FQB Tua got benched yesterday. He went from winning 3 straight and looking awesome to riding the pine.
Tua's looked good in two games and bad in two games. What's the point? Want to compare to Sam's first four?
Well said UK. We have that little joke on this board about how "that post didn't age well" and while I laugh at some of those just as much as anybody your post here is the opposite. With Burrow getting blown out this week your post is looking pretty prescient at the moment. If we magically knew that Lawrence really is the next Andrew Luck or Peyton Manning thats something you almost have to draft. But I'm not so sure he really is and I would still kind of like to see the Jets use their draft resources to actually get some help for Darnold whom they already have on the payroll and at least to my eyes has looked like he has more than enough promise to be a playoff level QB at least. He has had no help or support whatsoever. And the two coaching staffs he's had to labor under have been borderline joke level by NFL standards. Clear this dead wood out of the way staff wise, and actually get Sam some help has always been and remains the smart play in my mind. If Trevor Lawrence really becomes the next inner circle hall of fame QB then OK.... that was a bad decision to not take him and everybody will make fun of it for the next 50 years. Fine. But there have only ever been 5 or 6 of those super-elite QB's. There is absolutely no stone-chisled guarantee that Trevor is the 7th one in history or whatever we're up to. What IS chisled in stone is that the Jets have been a disaster the last few coaching staffs and that Darnold needs help badly both on the field and on the sideline. I know its not popular at all and everybody wants to run after the new and shiny. But I vote to fix the shit that we know needs fixing first. THEN maybe we can talk about chasing new and shiny.
What does this have to do with anything? Some type of attempt to defend Sam? If Tua ranks as a bottom 2 QB in the NFL after 2.5 seasons I'll be ready to condemn him just like Sam.
I don’t know. Flacco was on pace to be sacked 52 times last season in Denver, but he doesn’t seem to be having as much trouble as Darnold behind the same OL this season. Neither of them are good QB’s.
Just a comment on how hard it is to find a FQB...even when you think you have one, you may not. Tua was used as an example. Sam may be another.
He got his knee snapped in half yesterday. He has the most passing attempts by 16 throws and he missed a half of football yesterday yet still completes 65% of his passes. Burrow was clearly a culture changer and that's the overriding point. He gets there, Cincinnati is instantly alive in every game. That's what a quarterback needs to do. As reluctant as I am to say it, Herbert has the same thing going for him. The great ones in the game will their teams to 7-8-9 wins and their team can win almost any game they play in. That's what Brees, Rivers, Wilson, etc. have done over the course of their careers even when the rosters have been subpar.
I agree, except that I think Darnold may well be ruined, at least as far as playing on the Jets. And the consensus that Lawrence is one of the generational QBs is too widely held to not take him if they have the chance. Now, if they're picking #2, my thinking leans more towards what you suggest, even though I'm afraid Darnold may be unsalvageable. Trade back and get more premium picks and load up on the offense, the OL, WRs, and stud RB. I should also put in the caveat that this is contingent on Gase being gone. If Gase remains, then frankly I don't give a shit any more what they do. But if Gase IS still here, they could draft Lawrence and he'll be ruined just as surely as Darnold was. Maybe he'll be marginally better, and enable them to play .500 ball +/- a game or two, but that's it. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, no thanks.
All that is true, but that doesn't mean those who fall short of that high level are trash, which is what many here are claiming Darnold is. Of course, by now, thanks to the "brilliant" coaching and support of this QB-killing franchise, Darnold may have become trash. It would be poetic justice for him to wind up on the Patriots and Belichick turn him into Brady II. I'm so bitter about what the Jets have done I'd actually enjoy that.
I think we are seeing that Brady turned Belichick into Belichick, Belichick likely had nothing to do with Brady’s ascension and ain’t replicating Brady’s success with anybody else. Belichick isn’t turning Darnold into anything but Bledsoe 2.0
I'm not neccesarily "anti" Lawrence if the Jets and their new staff analyzed that he really is the next apex predator NFL QB. But cold mathematical odds tell us he likely isn't. I've heard Bill Belichik say that "great players cannot overcome bad coaching" and I think we've been pretty much watching this theory in action on the field for the last 3 or 4 seasons with the Jets. I don't think Bowles brought one single solitary thing to the table over what Rex was providing and Gase has seemed to be even worse than Bowles. Drafting Lawrence and subjecting him to this same group of ass clowns I think is going to end up in the same exact range of results.... complete shit. Get a real coach, a real staff, trade the Lawrence pick to some other team for a boatload of high draft capital, sit back and watch the Jets completely turn 180 degrees in the next few seasons..... IF you get the right coach and staff. I'm starting to think that is what is completely critical for the Jets to accomplish. Quibbling over weather Lawrence is 10 or 15% better than Sam Darnold is just going to get you more nowhere than you already are until the infrastructure gets improved.
