kungfoodude

This data was available from just about every other instance of a top paid RB in the past 15 years. On average their career length is quite short because of the beating they take. Even elite RB's typically have a relatively short span of high level production before injuries start setting in or they just generally break down. That ship has pretty much sailed now. We'll have CMC and really at this point need CMC enough for at least a couple of more years. We just have to hope he can give us some longer streaks of being healthy eventually. I know this switch to a 17 game season isn't doing him or us any favors.

I believe you mean clearly. The issues aren't all Darnold's fault, to be sure, but he is clearly a big part of the problem with our offense. Hard to blame his career high TO's/game numbers on everyone else.

I wouldn't have wanted to subject Fields to this nonsense, even if he was just a backup. At this point, he'd probably already being seeing playing time given how poor Darnold's play has been. Then we would be ruining another QB.

This is an easy concept and has existed for decades. If you don't want to be the enemy of your WR's, don't throw them into career shortening collisions. They exist less now because of player safety emphasis but that probably doesn't make Terrace Marshall feel any better.

We don't have the option of dumping him because we have no one else. I'd rather let him take the bullets from this firing squad of an OL than a promising young player. Make no mistake, once we have that remedied, he'll be out the door with them.

Case in point for the people that want to blame everything on everyone else. Darnold is as much the problem as his surrounding cast.

Uh....no.

Yes, there are multiple Darnold fanboys who literally pop up in every thread blaming Brady, Robby, the OL, Rhule or whoever else for any mistake he makes. That is a group here, although getting smaller as they all realize what he is, a very subpar QB being put in a situation to fail.

RB's are a dime a dozen, so we can do anything we want in that realm.

Agreed. Spend the money on the OL and then position yourself in 2023 or 2024 to snag a top tier QB prospect.

People are just reacting emotionally to him having a bad game and a fairly bad season. It's partly people looking to blame everyone because we are losing, partly people that didn't want to sign him to an extension and partly the Darnold fanboys who refuse to see his flaws and will blame anyone and everything.

I mean, they definitely suck but we can't shut the season down. There just isn't a lot we can do about it now other than make do with that we have.

I wouldn't read too much into his attitude. We get tiny snippets of info. We aren't there are the sidelines, field, locker room, practices, etc.

It's still a contact sport. We can't shut down for the sake of a 5th round draft pick, even a promising one. Ideally we get CMC back and they can share the load together.

Yeah and I am not against keeping a guy like Darnold around next season if we have better help. At least that might buy us time to get even better on the OL and then actually get an NFL caliber starting QB in here.

Yeah, but we gotta do something. We can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results. We can't pass block for poo, our QB can't make decisions worth a fug and our WR's seem to have just given up in the last game.

True but one thing we can't continue to do is rely on them to do what they do worst...pass block. Especially when you have a bottom tier decision maker at QB. I am completely okay going with a revamped, run heavy offense. fug it, at least it is trying something different.

It could be that indeed. He has had so many just out of his grasp or just barely escape. It's weird.

Agreed. I feel like he needs a solid mentor/coach to help him work on finishing plays and becoming a little more of a complete player. Otherwise, he is quickly going to go from a future elite pass rusher to a one trick pony. That will cost him a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of $$$ on his next contract.

Agreed. I wouldn't have wished this OL on any rookie QB. It would have been an immediate wasted investment. Based on the moves Fitterer has made since he first started, I think he realizes how big a mistake the OL signings/draft picks were and that we need to improve at QB. I have faith we will get better in 2022.

He isn't playing poorly overall but it is concerning that he is still sort of getting that same thing as last year, SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO close but just out of his grasp. If he can finish a few of those, he'd be putting up Reddick stats.

Yeah, we were probably fuged with that Darnold/OL combo from the start, so it isn't really worth getting worked up over. I hope when we get the full defense back, those guys will start to dominate again. I think when CMC comes back, we might be able to establish the run on a more consistent basis and try to take the ball out of Darnold's hands as much as possible. That's probably our best path to success this season on that side of the ball. Overall, we still are loaded with offensive weapons for 2022 and have a potentially scary defense. Just need to keep building that roster.

Usually the tanking talk starts in earnest when we are in a top 10 draft pick position in the second half of the season. We are sitting at 15th at the moment so I don't think we will see that sort of jumping off the cliff for a few weeks. Also, this is a trash QB draft so I don't think there will be as many "tankers" as before.

Agreed. It is crazy how deep our CB's are.

Yes, his 28 yds/GM and zero TD's have really been the thing that has ground our offense to a halt.