kungfoodude

In case you haven't noticed, these emotional children aren't real keen on research or facts. Reminds me of the angry Twitter mobs lashing out irrationally at anything they don't agree with.

Yeah, luckily the early slate has some margin for error based on the opponents. If that schedule was flipped, I think things could have been pretty rough in the first half. Yeah, and as much as Darnold is likely to be viewed as merely a backup after his time here, he could certainly prove to be a valuable backup later in his career. Some of these first round bust QB's have actually had lengthy careers as journeyman backups. They don't all end up out of the NFL in short order like the Russell's and Leaf's.

Thanks for the rent free space in your head.

I expect Darnold to show very marginal improvement but still be plagued by poor decisions. I still am not going to make a judgment until probably halfway through the season, at the earliest. As much as we want to see him come out guns blazing in Game 1 he isn't the only new piece to this offense, so I expect some general growing pains to go through in the first few games. Especially with so many of the new pieces being very young players and/or rookies.

Snake, I know you are on Otah for some reason but he actually had a valid reason for flaming out and he actually played quite well when he saw the field. Was the pick a bust overall? Yes. Was it the same kind of bust as Little or Clausen? Absolutely not. Those aren't comparable because he was actually a very effective player for us when he played.

There were a lot of guys that avoided long term contracts this past offseson because the expectation is that the salary cap will skyrocket with the new TV deal.

100% agree. He was conservative to a fault. I get he didn't have much time because our OL was subpar, but had he possessed some amount of courage to take some chances, we are probably looking at being a fringe playoff team in year one of this rebuild.

Yeah. I know the New York media is crazy and so is that spotlight there but it isn't going to get any less bright given the position he is in. And we have no backup plan, so he can't fade quietly into the background if things start going south.

Yep. Like it or not, the Panthers are going to the answer the Sam Darnold question in 2021. If he flames out or is mediocre here, he will be relegated to being a backup QB the rest of his NFL career.

Yeah, most QB's SHOULD be successful in this system. It isn't perfect by any means but it is definitely QB friendly. That's why Teddy's failure was so telling, IMO. If he couldn't succeed with what we had(OL problems aside), when is he going to succeed? It's rare to have absolutely perfect conditions and Teddy seems to be a guy that needs that(see New Orleans). Let's hope Darnold doesn't end up being our second consecutive QB that needs an almost perfect situation to succeed.

You mean like the Saints were probably laughing last year?

Yeah and if we don't improve and his decision making stays suspect, he isn't going to do much developing at all. People get caught up in certain OL stats(to suit their narrative) without taking into account the fact that our offense(and QB) had a lot to do with the OL looking better than they actually were in 2020. Let's hope we hit HR's on every OL pick/signing. It doesn't matter who we have back there if that unit keeps struggling perpetually.

Not to mention that is the one instance of that working compared to the dozens of it not working. It's certainly POSSIBLE we get a Tannehill turnaround(although he is still not an elite/franchise QB either) but it is not even close to probable.

Winston has never had a season as bad as Darnold's entire career. But, he was also on a pretty offensively loaded team. I don't think Darnold is on the Favre/Winston end of the gunslinger scale, either. He seems to be more in the mid-range of gunslingers. We will see this season because Brady's offense is pretty adept at getting guys open.

I am hoping the OL questions subside but the draft picks and FA signings don't give me a good feeling about our OL improving. So, Darnold may not be set up as well for success as is being assumed. The offensive weapons and Brady's scheme should serve to alleviate some of that if the OL is subpar again. The big question is how Darnold is going to adapt his style to Brady's system. Hopefully we get Joe Burrow and not Jameis Winston

I don't have any questions about his work ethic. I have never heard him linked to that kind of thing. It's about what he does when the bullets are flying in a real game. That is when we will know if he is the guy or not. I will wager that it won't take very long into the regular season to find out the answer to that question.

Can someone interpret this?

Yeah, I mean I know we are getting hosed but we can't assume that hosing is gonna stop after round 1.

That's really the big issue, whether he can fit within this system. Teddy actually ran Brady's offense very well. If we could have sprinkled a little Darnold/Jake backyard play into him, we probably aren't having any discussion of who our QB is.

I agree with that. Gunslingers are fun to watch when they are on. But those Favre/Winston boneheaded throws are absolutely maddening. It's the blessing and the curse of that playing style. In that regard, I do kind of understand his point about not changing what he does.

If I cared(and I for sure don't) I am sure re-reading offseason 2020 posts about Teddy are pretty entertaining now. I love these dopes that can't take any adult discussion that is even slightly critical.

I never really considered anything you have posted worthwhile, so that doesn't really impact me in any way.

I will be interested to see if he ends up being the polar opposite of Teddy. Teddy consistently took the easy and open receiver, regardless of the scenario. I am curious to see if Darnold passes on easy options and tries to bomb it, regardless of how ill advised that decision may be. As good as our WR corps appears to be, they aren't going to consistently win jump balls.

Yeah, if he was on a $5 mil deal I wouldn't even have been upset at all about the signing.

That is pretty much the reason that a portion of us are down on him in general. He didn't show much improvement from college to the NFL, nor did he during his time in the NFL. Eventually, that becomes the player and not the place. Those doubts are very valid.