Is Darnold "coddled" ?

[TheBigKat]

Tom Brady is playing in the preseason

Patrick Mahomes is playing in the preseason

Justin Fields is playing in the preseason

Trevor Lawrence is playing in the preseason

Darnold isn't injured like Dak so why the heck is he only trotted out for 2 attempts? If ANYONE in the NFL needs the work it is Sam Darnold, on the verge of a being a bust comes to Carolina and has:

New teammates

New coaching staff

New city

 

I cannot understand the logic here, unless these team scrimmages are amazing and he is getting game action work in what in the world are we doing with evaluating this fella and making sure he is the guy for week 1?

[bigdog10]

I get the rationale the staff is using in that he’s getting all his snaps against the other teams ones in the joint practices, however there is something to be said for sitting back there in a semi-real game knowing you could get hit. 
 

I figured he would play about three series last night. Having him in there for only one drive that started on the 35 yard line and ended in a four and out at r goal line, just confirms my thinking that Rhule is in way over his head. 

[Varking]

I don't think its a great idea to have Darnold play much without his top guys in there surrounding him. We are still trying to piece together an online and figure out what works. He will play more this week so it doesn't really matter. The team has a plan. 

[cookinbrak]

If you ha watched the game last night, you would have heard that we are one of 7 teams that used joint practices as preseason games.

[CRA]

I wouldn’t expect Sam to play a half vs the Steelers either.  
 

My personal belief is that is that if it wasn’t for the INT having them in scoring position he wouldn’t of played at all last night.  

Rhule was already hedging his bet on having him out there long vs the Steelers post game. 

[Tbe]

I think the thinking is this.

They don’t want him in there without the starting offensive line and WR. 

However, we are so thin at Oline (and Robbie is a little banged up) that they don’t want to risk those guys being out for long.

I do suspect Darnold is still struggling a bit though based on what I heard from camp last week.

[hepcat]

Duh he’s being coddled. Doofy Darnold and the ghosts. The problem is the Panthers don’t have any other starting options if he gets hurt so they’re holding him back despite the obvious need for real game reps. The coaches can pump up his practice reps against other teams all they want it’s not the same as real game reps.

[NAS]

22 minutes ago, CRA said:

I wouldn’t expect Sam to play a half vs the Steelers either.  
 

My personal belief is that is that if it wasn’t for the INT having them in scoring position he wouldn’t of played at all last night.  

Rhule was already hedging his bet on having him out there long vs the Steelers post game. 

Rhule confirmed the plan was for him to play between 5 to 10 snaps on offense. Unfortunately, he had only 8 snaps and only two pass attempts.

Unless the concern is keeping him from getting hurt, I am not buying it. I think it has more to do with slowly building his confidence by providing continuity with offensive line and his weapons.

Rhule indicated he expects him to play the first half but was a but noncommittal.

[Shocker]

There was no preseason last year and it didn’t matter much.  Not concerned 

[OldhamA]

28 minutes ago, CRA said:

I wouldn’t expect Sam to play a half vs the Steelers either.  
 

My personal belief is that is that if it wasn’t for the INT having them in scoring position he wouldn’t of played at all last night.  

Rhule was already hedging his bet on having him out there long vs the Steelers post game. 

I don't like to openly question the intelligence of people (especially those I don't personally know), but it's difficult at times on this board.

So you don't think Darnold would have played without the INT. Even though both sets of starters (on offence and defence) played one series this game?

 

[NiceDreams]

From the outside looking in, the lack of playing time and in-game reps is a bit of a head-scratcher. You'd think the coaches would want to get Sam meaningful reps, but I don't get paid the big bucks like Ruhle so I'm sure he has some type of plan on how he wants to handle him after 3 years of NY trauma.

[onmyown]

Because the main position responsible for protecting him is probably the worst position group on the entire team (and has been for a while now)?

I’d question whether they’re coddling the oline. Not even worthy to protect the starting qb in a preseason game.

But honestly who knows. Maybe it’s just the way Rhule does things. And really I don’t care, cause it won’t matter. He’s got 17 games…he’ll either look good or we move on.

[Call Me James]

He's being coddled. But I don't think it matters. He's a 4 year vet. If he hasn't figured it out yet, I doubt he will. 

[Jon Snow]

No.