Sam Darnold's "Style of Ball"

[panthers55]

Darnold will get his shot with a good scheme and lots of talent. If he bombs here he will not get a chance elsewhere and he knows it. I expect he will have a good year and are least be decent as our scheme doesn't require QBs to play outside of their ability level. I expect there to be lots of easier throws and dumpoffs until Darnold feels confident in our system.  This is a very quarterback friendly system. Something that plays to his strengths. 

Edited May 26, 2021 by panthers55

[frankw]

3 hours ago, SBBlue said:

You know I feel bad for Teddy.

He got 30 million dollars to lose games and blame others and he already has another gig. That's more than some other players get. He'll be alright you can rest easy.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Do yourself a favor before making this comparison again - check Tannehill's numbers in Miami and do the same for Darnold in NY. 

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.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, Sgt Schultz said:

Our OL does not give me a good feeling, either.  If Christenson and hopefully Brown can move into the starting lineup (and not by attrition) by weeks 8-12, it would be a good move.  Otherwise, I hope they are better than last year, but that is not a high bar.  While some point at numbers that place us just below the middle of the league, every number I see about QB time to release or pocket time indicates our ranking is skewed by one of the quickest snap to throw or snap to collapse times in the league.

I'm not as convinced as the consensus around here that our OL was better than what Darnold had with the Jest.  They ranked lower...but also had longer times by which to give up sacks.

I'm hopeful about Darnold, but largely because he is 23.  The two risks are that he was not able to turn the NFL corner to begin with, or his time with the Jest beat his ability to do that out of him.  But, his attitude so far (including work ethic) should give him the chance to elevate himself, assuming he is capable and we don't get him killed.  He certainly was not a statue with the Jest, but if we have yet another situation where his brain associates dropping back with running for his life, well, that is not exactly conducive for improvement in the passing game or better decision making.

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.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yes, he's a bust. He played terribly. They moved on because he played terribly and they thought Zach Wilson was a better option for them moving forward. Baker Mayfield has had four head coaches in three seasons but the Browns didn't move past him because he hasn't played terribly and they didn't view someone else as a better option.

Sorry man, as much as you don't like it, barely over 8000 yards and 45 TDs vs. 39 INTs is a bust. We're just hoping he can bounce back from being a bust, but arguing that he wasn't a bust is just blind homerism. If a division rival had made this trade and hitched their wagon to Sam Darnold we'd be laughing our asses off.

You mean like the Saints were probably laughing last year?

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, panthers55 said:

Darnold will get his shot with a good scheme and lots of talent. If he bombs here he will not get a chance elsewhere and he knows it. I expect he will have a good year and are least be decent as our scheme doesn't require QBs to play outside of their ability level. I expect there to be lots of easier throws and dumpoffs until Darnold feels confident in our system.  This is a very quarterback friendly system. Something that plays to his strengths. 

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.

[panthers55]

2 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

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.

Teddy wasn't able to change when defenses figured out he wasn't going to throw it more than 10 yards down the field. Defenders played our receivers tight and didn't worry about double moves which compressed the field and hurt our run game as well.  It wouldn't have taken that much for Teddy to have been successful last year and his unwillingness or inability to push the ball downfield doomed him.  Even in 2 minute drills at the end of the game he was nickel and diming the ball down the field. I think if he had taken more chances and finished a few drives Teddy would still be here.

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, panthers55 said:

Teddy wasn't able to change when defenses figured out he wasn't going to throw it more than 10 yards down the field. Defenders played our receivers tight and didn't worry about double moves which compressed the field and hurt our run game as well.  It wouldn't have taken that much for Teddy to have been successful last year and his unwillingness or inability to push the ball downfield doomed him.  Even in 2 minute drills at the end of the game he was nickel and diming the ball down the field. I think if he had taken more chances and finished a few drives Teddy would still be here.

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.

 

[NanuqoftheNorth]

3 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

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. 

From what I've seen of his play, Darnold is the anti-Teddy.  I don't want him to lose the willingness to take risks for the big score, just to use better judgement when it isn't there for the taking.

I'm going with the glass half full approach for at least the first half of the season, after that all bets are off.

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

From what I've seen of his play, Darnold is the anti-Teddy.  I don't want him to lose the willingness to take risks for the big score, just to use better judgement when it isn't there for the taking.

I'm going with the glass half full approach for at least the first half of the season, after that all bets are off.

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.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

5 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

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.

Watching other players turn around their careers over the years has taught me that these things don't tend to happen immediately, its a process.  However, by mid season we should be seeing some clear signs of improvement.  If not, things may get ugly in Panthersland.

Edited May 26, 2021 by NanuqoftheNorth

[glenwo2]

5 minutes ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

Watching other players turn around their careers over the years has taught me that these things don't tend to happen immediately, its a process.  However, by mid season we should be seeing some clear signs of improvement.  If not, things may get ugly in Panthersland.

I don't like the term that "kungfooldude" used there :  "marginal" improvement.

Marginal implies that he'll be just slightly better than he was last season which is an absolute JOKE of a Take.   

[SBBlue]

11 minutes ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

Watching other players turn around their careers over the years has taught me that these things don't tend to happen immediately, its a process.  However, by mid season we should be seeing some clear signs of improvement.  If not, things may get ugly in Panthersland.

Problem is, the weaker teams come early in the schedule, hopefully we play well enough to eek out wins as we're gel-ing.  Could be worse, the jets will have a rookie qb and rookie coaches.

Edited May 26, 2021 by SBBlue

[kungfoodude]

20 minutes ago, glenwo2 said:

I don't like the term that "kungfooldude" used there :  "marginal" improvement.

Marginal implies that he'll be just slightly better than he was last season which is an absolute JOKE of a Take.   

Thanks for the rent free space in your head.