With all due respect Br4d, outside of Jones (RB) and the dinged up WR Diontay Burnett, where's the "lots of talent" around Darnold this year? I've mentioned ad nauseum (beginning pre-season) how USC's lost ELEVEN starters including 3/5th of their OL and including BOTH of their All-American tackles as well as thier two biggest playmakers in Ju-Ju Schuster and Adoree' Jackson. This is not the 'Rose Bowl' roster from last year (in addition to them not being at full health).
"Consistantly overcome his mistakes?" So (again), "mistakes" are the norm with Sam Darnold? Ok, Sam Darnold can't carry Josh Rosen's jock, whatever, but this "2 strikes against him/mistakes are the norm with him" narrative is impossible to argue. You take Rosen (I hope he stays healthy). I'll take Darnold and his less sexy intangibles.
Given what you say you're looking for in a QB, I'm surprised you don't see it in Rosen, and a better arm to boot.
Some great posts in this thread. That’s why I am now so scared that Trevor might be our next heart break. I hope he is the real deal.
Saquon Barkley may be currently hurt but he's just a much better football player than Sam Darnold ever was. It's sad he tore his ACL because during his first two seasons he was awesome and combined for 2,310 rushing yards (4.83 yards per attempt), 17 rushing TD's, 143 receptions for 1,159 receiving yards and 6 receiving TDs; 3,469 offensive yards from scrimmage, 23 TDs and only ONE (1) freaking fumble!!!! It was never a question for me. Barkley was always the best prospect coming out through my eyes and it wasn't even close. Him tearing an ACL is tragic because he's the closest thing I've ever seen to Barry Sanders and imo has (had) the ability and talent to become the greatest RB of All Time in terms of pure dominance. This year? My new Barkley is Trevor Lawrence and it's not even close he's by far the most dominant football player out there. Sam Darnold I really liked coming out but he's nothing like a Barkley/Lawrence impact wise.
Hindsight is always 20/20. Darnold seemed like a good pick at the time and well.....most likely he wasn’t. Barkley was off the table by the third pick and he probably would’ve gotten injured with us too, running all those draw plays. Mayfield was also off the table and he has more fire than Sam, but he’s playing on a much better team talent wise. Rosen? No. Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson? Might’ve been good, but we seemed to want a traditional qb that stays in the pocket and passes(even though we’ve done little to support that) even though the league has been trending toward highly mobile, accurate qbs. I think we finally got the memo.
Mechanics and decision making- both of these were issues at USC and he has not been given much help(to say the least) Sadly he looked better as a rookie. He was more decisive and really gunned the ball in there. We see flashes but after that interception in the final 2 minutes of the first half against the Bills sealed it for me. It’s time to move on and get a new cast in here. Sam isn’t doing us any favors as we will be lucky to get more than a 3rd for him at this point. Teams have the leverage as they know we want to unload him
