Sam Darnold's Struggles: Thursday Night Analysis & Insights

I'm so glad. I feel very vindicated. Sam Darnold is Trent Dilfer when it comes to Super Bowl champions. Period. End of story. Clint Kubiak just hid him behind K-9, Kenneth Walker, and Zach Charbonnet all year last year. And that play action worked to perfection. Look at what Kenneth Walker has done for the Chiefs. That's the same thing he was doing for the Seahawks. That run game dominated, and it allowed what you see now, Sam Darnold's inability to make pressure passes not be necessary. He was awful tonight. He had a lot of yards, but when it came time for him to win the game for you, he threw it to the other team. Bad interceptions, too. Bad interceptions. And, John, the other thing, this Seahawks offense, We were kind of concerned about the Kubiak-less offense that the Seattle team went. Seahawks fans and everyone around the NFL was like, oh, it won't matter. They got Jadarian Price, and they'll figure out how to replace Kenneth Walker, and they have Charbonnet coming back at some point, and Darnold's just good. It wasn't Kubiak. And now I'm looking at some of these losses that they're having, and I'm kind of just like, maybe it was Kubiak making him look so good. There were some throws. There have been some plays and some games this year where Darnold does look good, but it wasn't to the effect of last year, where he was dominant throughout the season. He was decisive with the ball last year, and that's the difference. Right now, when you watch him play, he's trying to play off athleticism. The two interceptions he threw tonight was because he was trying to make something happen, throwing off platform, doing these things you see guys like Caleb Williams do or Patrick Mahomes in his prime. You see him make these throws, you go, oh, my God. Sam Darnold's got a great arm, but he doesn't have the type of arm to be throwing from the opposite hash to the opposite sideline. He ain't got the cannon like that. And that's where two of those interceptions came from. He's trying to make throws that require elite arm strength. And I just think that at this point, we are now seeing him, because, again, I think he's got 12 interceptions. I think it is 12 interceptions. in six games and that's not counting the lost fumble yeah so i just think we are seeing this version of Sam Darnold this is who he is he's not what you saw last year because that was great coaching mixed with him showing he knows how to manage the game what you're seeing right now is they're asking him to win the game for you and he cannot do that that's not in his skill set and i think john what you're seeing is you know when he was with minnesota and that coach with kevin o'connell and how good he was right they were 14 and 2 going into the last weekend with the lions and he was unbelievable right but that was an offensive minded coach that was a quarterback's coach he goes to seattle you're thinking well man i don't know like kubiak's not as good as o'connell but let's see we now know that kubiak is the truth i mean look at what he's doing yeah i'm done vegas i mean he's doing the same thing in that office with kirk Cousins. You know why the Raiders are respectable right now? Because they're buttoned up and Kirk Cousins doesn't throw the Kirk Cousins interception. That's been coached out of him. He doesn't do it anymore. You know who does do it now? Sam Darnold. You know who Sam Darnold looks like right now? Jameis Winston. No disrespect to Jameis Winston. 3-1, aren't they? 3-1-1. But Jameis Winston, from time to time, will throw a ball. You go, what are you doing? So does Josh Allen, too. But Josh Allen can also run 400 yards while doing i'm not bashing he just cooked my favorite thing yeah sam darnold has not been able to do that throughout his career what last the year with the vikings and last year are not you know the the average the average is what you see right now this is who sam darnold is a good nfl quarterback but if you need him to win you the game he can't do that he's not a franchise quarterback he's just a good quarterback i don't know how denver keeps winning some of these games i mean you look at like Bo Nix's stat line on thursday 17 of 27 barely over 100 yards he had 107 yards with no touchdowns and no picks and a 71 rating uh qb rating uh that's what Jaylen Waddle and Courtland Sutton i just i don't know how they you know you look at the rams right i know i keep pointing everything in the rams the rams are like number one in offense and like number one in they're top three in these categories and they're two and three. And then you look at the Broncos, they're four and two and they have, they have had an atrocious offense. You know, they had a good, I guess a decent first half, then five punts and six possessions after that late. And they still won the game. Is, is this what Sean Payton took play calling back for? Right. Is this what, is this what it was? They beat the chargers. Yeah. That's not too difficult to look lifeless at home where the Broncos play lights out at home. And I think maybe more if it's a defensive effort than it is an offensive effort. But they're awesome at home. And for Sean Payton to make such a, or for people to make such a big deal about Sean Payton taking the play calling back, for them to pretty much give you the same stinker that the other guy was calling plays about, to me, I don't really see the difference. And to me, this kind of exposes Sean Payton.