BrianS

I suspect he'll be starting sometime in October.

I wish him the best, but he really needs to find someone to fix him. The fact that he pushes EVERY kick right points to something mechanical, but I can't spot it. Shame the Panthers coaches couldn't either.

The key for Darnold this year will be the situation surrounding him. If we are keeping the game close, if we are staying ahead of the chains, etc he will have less need to be the hero and hopefully he'll just play within the system. If we start to get behind in games, get behind the down and distance, it will encourage his less desirable traits.

Reports surrounding him are good, but man, his mechanics scare me. His runup is far from normal.

I mean . . . can we have Drew Lock then?

So our kickers went a combined 2/6. Next batch please.

Sounds like we dodged a bullet there. Best he can probably hope for is a vet minimum deal somewhere at this point.

I would like to point out that those grades were achieved with our very suspect backup QB's on the field.

By early to mid October, we'll know. If Darnold sucks, our second round pick is a bust. We're familiar with that refrain by now.

I don't blame him. We're still full of question marks. I think we have bags of potential, but we haven't actually demonstrated the ability to fulfill that potential yet. The Rams are ready to win NOW.

I suspect we're going to stash the new LS on the PS this year and let him take over next year.

No, we still think they are crap. In this case however, all they had to do was count. I will begrudgingly admit that they can probably count. As long as they have a calculator. And a pocket protector.

I was there with ya man. Minshew has potential. In his two seasons with Jacksonville, Minshew is 7-13. Not wonderful, but it's the Jags. The flip side of that coin however is that WITHOUT Minshew, the Jags are 0-12. Trubisky as well. I mean, what kind of players was he surrounded with? Not much better than Darnold, if at all. And yet Trubisky is 29-21 overall, and a 64% passer. Both have produced more than Darnold, and NEITHER would have cost us a second round pick. I really think the front office wanted boom or bust. Either we got a great QB to sort us out for the next 10 years, or we got an awful QB to lead us to the top pick next spring.

Ah, yes, the second of two kickers we had who are head and shoulders better than the cheap option we kept.

"Gano sucks. He is too expensive. He needs to go. Slye can do it." "Slye sucks. He isn't consistent. He needs to go." All Gano did was go 31/32 last year for FG's. No biggie. Slye's best season kicking barely edges Gano's worst with us. All Huddling aside. Slye is bad. Yes. We had our "good" kicker (some would argue twice). We decided that Slye was the answer. Apparently we were asking the wrong question. Fortunately, for the current regime, they can lay all that on Ron and Marty.

We discussed this here:

I think he makes the team, largely because Tremble is also (effectively) our FB.

Best of luck to him.

How?!?!? Were you at practice? Do you know our offense and the calls like a coach would? You realize how important it is for a receiver to run a precise route, yes? A couple yards too short or a couple yards too long can make the pass look really wrong . . . and it may not be on the QB. If the receivers were really at fault, he's placing the blame where it should fall. Darnold will be judged on his performance in games that count. Likewise will Matt Rhule. Let's give them both the opportunity to play it out and see where we end up. Knee jerk reactions like that aren't helpful. Just like with Kyle Allen or TB5, you need more than just a few games of data to see the truth.

Sam Darnold is a career 60% passer. Today he was a little under, with some drops. Are we seriously doom and glooming over one so-so practice? Darnold will succeed or fail. We'll know by the end of October assuming he isn't injured.

I think you're missing my point. We cannot replace Kuechly, the MLB. He was generational. We'll never see another like him here in our lifetime. What we can HOPE to replace is what he brought to the defense, the leadership. What we miss most from Kuechly is not his ability to play MLB - as exceptional as it was. What we miss is that guy who can call out the play that's coming, the guy who can get us into the right defense to counter it, the guy who puts his teammates in position to be successful. I think / hope Chinn can be THAT guy. Another season playing at the level he played at last year will give Chinn the "street cred" with the rest of the defense to start taking over that sort of role. If he can mentally get to that place where Kuechly lived.

Don't sleep on Chinn taking over that role. He's got the athletic ability, it's all down to whether he elevates his preparation to Kuechly levels at this point.

Darnold. First, last and every option in between, it's Darnold. If Darnold can be just "good", my expectations for this team will go way up. We have talent at a lot of spots now. Yes, we still have weak spots, but every team does. The question is do your strong spots cover for the weaknesses.

Context! This is a *VERY* good Colts team. If they had any sort of QB last year they may have had a chance to get to the big dance. I'm not saying we should be accepting of getting beat up, but it's not like the Jags came out and beat us up. My only concern is the intensity with which our players approach the situation. Sounds like we might have been a little flat. That's a concern, 100%. As long as we play hard, we'll be fine. That's what I want to see.

GL Agent89.