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Sam Darnold's success - Ladypanther - 09-21-2024
Sam Darnold is finally the NFL quarterback other teams never let him become
The Vikings have provided a platform unlike any Sam Darnold had before, and the former Jets draft pick is thriving.
In the fourth week of the 2016 season, Clay Helton had turned his football team over to an 18-year-old redshirt freshman. On the Southern California sideline, amid the bedlam of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, the coach wanted to confirm he staked his future on the right person. Helton peered into Sam Darnold’s face mask.
“You can always see it in a quarterback’s eyes,” Helton said. “They’re either deer-in-the-headlights or they look at you like it’s just a practice. He’s always looked like, ‘Coach, don’t worry, I got this.’ And he was right. He always had it.”
Early this NFL season, Helton’s assertion forms the basis of a critical question for a league ever struggling to cultivate quarterbacks: Has Darnold always had this in him? Why did he lose it? And how he has he gotten it back?
Two weeks do not complete a reclamation. But Darnold’s first two weeks as the Minnesota Vikings’ starting quarterback could be what the beginning of one looks like. Once the third pick in the NFL draft and twice discarded by shambolic franchises, Darnold will lead the Vikings into Sunday’s showdown of 2-0 teams against the Houston Texans as one of the best passers of the young season.
On his fourth team at 27, Darnold has thrown for 9.5 yards per attempt (third in the NFL) with a 111.749 rating (fifth). Pro Football Focus grades Darnold as the fourth-best quarterback in the NFL. He piloted Minnesota’s offense even after star wideout Justin Jefferson was injured midway through Sunday’s 23-17 victory over the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers. Vikings Coach Kevin O’Connell, briefly an NFL quarterback himself, choked up as he began to praise Darnold at his news conference late Sunday afternoon.
“The amount of work that goes into that position on your quarterback journey when everybody decides that you cannot play,” O’Connell said. “We always believed in him. It felt awesome to watch him go do that thing.”
NFL teams understand quarterbacks are their lifeblood. They draft them earlier and pay them more than all other players. And yet the league generally remains clueless about how to identify and nurture them. The latest evidence arrived Monday when the Carolina Panthers benched 2023 first overall pick Bryce Young less than 20 games into his career. The last Panthers quarterback to start before the disastrous franchise handoff to Young? It was Darnold, jettisoned after a 4-2 finish that nearly sneaked Carolina into the playoffs.
Darnold spent 2023 as a San Francisco 49ers backup before the Vikings signed him to a one-year, $10 million contract. He became the unquestioned starter when first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy suffered an offseason knee injury.
“I’m glad he’s had the kind of road that he’s had,” said Helton, now the head coach at Georgia Southern. “It makes him appreciate being part of a really good organization, a great coaching staff and good players around him. Sometimes, the right time and the right place happens. That’s kind of what’s happening right now for him.”
A tome could be written on the differences between good and bad NFL quarterbacking situations. “It’s not as simple as Kevin O’Connell and Justin Jefferson and insert-five-names-here,” said former NFL backup quarterback Jordan Palmer, a personal coach who counts Darnold among his many NFL clients.
But the Vikings have undeniably provided a platform unlike any Darnold had before. He throws behind a strong offensive line to an elite wideout in Jefferson. He plays in O’Connell’s quarterback-friendly system, similar to that of O’Connell’s former boss Sean McVay. He leads a franchise built on stable and competent infrastructure.
Palmer has staunchly believed Darnold would flourish. This week, he ticked off the essential attributes for successful NFL quarterbacks: They don’t cut corners in their work. They refocus themselves every offseason. Their motivations are pure. They have requisite arm talent and smarts. Darnold checked every box.
“It’s not a big group,” Palmer said. “Those guys, as they stay at it, it’s a matter of time and place before they get in a situation where they finally just have to play to the best of their abilities, and it’s going to keep them in every game with a chance to make a run at the end. It’s just going to be a matter of time. We’re seeing that with Geno Smith. We’re seeing that with Baker Mayfield. We’re seeing that with Derek Carr.”
After the Panthers dispatched Darnold, the 49ers signed him to be Brock Purdy’s backup. In Coach Kyle Shanahan’s system, he learned a lot of football. He also learned about himself. He had struggled in his early 20s in New York. He had fought for his job while losing in Carolina. Stepping back allowed him to reset — he could study without the pressure of taking a test. Even in practice, he took few on-field repetitions.
“When you’re at quarterback, a lot of times you can feel everything collapsing in on you,” Darnold said. “Not just in a game but as a whole. If things aren’t going your way, you can feel the weight of the world a little bit.”
Learning the game without playing it allowed Darnold to recapture the position’s essence. Underneath all the presnap reads and protection schemes, the game could still be simple. “Put the ball in your playmakers’ hands and let them go run and make a play,” Darnold said.
Darnold was ensconced in Shanahan’s culture, practicing and studying game plans for a franchise headed to its second Super Bowl appearance in five years.
“It’s less about being the backup for a year,” Palmer said. “It’s more about being the backup in the situation he was in — being around Kyle Shanahan for a year, being around Brock Purdy for a year, being around a locker room where all the best players on the team were actually the most bought-in and hardest-working. It’s not like that everywhere. That was Sam’s first exposure to playing an entire football season in a winning locker room.”
Shanahan hoped he could bring Darnold back, but he expected to lose him to a team that offered a clearer path to the field. Having spent a season with Darnold, one of the best coaches in the NFL believed he was an NFL starter.
“Just his talent level from college and what you’d seen in NFL and was exactly as good as advertised,” Shanahan said. “He’s such a good athlete, so tough, can make any throw. And really enjoyed working with him. I thought he got better throughout the year.”
DARNOLD’s SUCCESS is not strictly reliant on external factors. He’s still the same passer who finished fifth in the nation in passing yards at USC. He possesses prototypical size at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds. He runs faster than most fans realize — he scored five rushing touchdowns in the 2021 season, when he averaged 4.6 yards per carry.
“There’s some really exciting players at the top of the NFL right now at the quarterback position,” Palmer said. “Fans and media have it in their minds how it looks when they do it — how fast they are and how strong their arms are. People think there’s a gap between Sam Darnold and that group. I’m uniquely positioned to have this opinion: There is no gap.”
On Sunday, Darnold dropped back from his 3-yard line, stepped up in a crowded pocket and launched a pass 55 yards in the air over double coverage to Jefferson — “one of the prettiest throws I’ve seen,” O’Connell said. Jefferson sprinted for a 97-yard touchdown. Darnold later feathered a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Nailor in the corner of the end zone.
“That is big-time quarterback play,” O’Connell said. “For all those folks out there that want some examples of it.”
“No flinch, no blink,” Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “There was a confidence about the way he dropped, stuck his foot in the ground.”
Darnold can play with clarity about his role. The Vikings signed him this offseason seemingly to provide a bridge to McCarthy. When McCarthy tore the meniscus in his right knee, requiring a surgery that will sideline him for the entire season, the Vikings became Darnold’s team. He believes he can grow further in O’Connell’s offense, and the returns of injured tight end T.J. Hockenson and wide receiver Jordan Addison will expand what O’Connell can call. “I’m not seeking comfort by any means,” Darnold said.
Darnold’s place in Minnesota beyond this season may be muddled. McCarthy will return. His contract will expire. Should he build on his start, though, his future will not be limited. He is young for his class and stayed in college only three years — he just turned 27 in June. Darnold is less than three years older than Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix, a pair of quarterbacks drafted in April.
“He got this opportunity because Sam more than deserves it,” Shanahan said. “Sam is a starting quarterback in this league, and he should run with it.”
O’Connell acknowledged that Darnold has benefited from the Vikings’ infrastructure. He also insisted Darnold has been as responsible for Minnesota’s success as the Vikings have been responsible for his. Darnold is not being propped up. He has merely been given a chance so many young quarterbacks are not, granted an opportunity to display what may have been there the whole time.
“Make no mistake about it,” O’Connell said. “This is Sam Darnold. This is who he is.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/09/21/sam-darnold-is-finally-nfl-quarterback-other-teams-never-let-him-become/
I hope Dan is finally the guy to get the Panthers built the right way.
RE: Sam Darnold's success - Josh21 - 09-21-2024
Good read lp! Thanks.
RE: Sam Darnold's success - Hobbit99 - 11-25-2024
SAM DARNOLD IS PROVING TO BE UNSHAKEABLE -- by Matthew Coller .. SI.com
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/matthew-coller-sam-darnold-is-proving-to-be-unshakable/ar-AA1uIurU?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=2fa9d30734bc4f96d04ec0a65f758a12&ei=13
Quote:CHICAGO — The final two minutes of regulation were a total calamity for the Minnesota Vikings and Sam Darnold couldn’t do anything other than stand on the sideline and watch.
After converting a third-and-12 pass for 34 yards to TJ Hockenson to set the Vikings up for a field goal to go up 27-16, it looked like the Vikings QB would be able to put on his ballcap and start thinking of who he wanted to thank in his postgame press conference.
And then the Chicago Bears returned a kick for 55 yards. And then they scored a touchdown with 22 seconds left. And then converted the 2-point conversion
OK, just recover the onside kick and Darnold gets to soak up another W in the winningest season of his career.
Nope. The Bears recovered the onside kick, completed a 27-yard pass and kicked a game-tying field goal.
The Vikings defense got a stop to give Darnold a shot to win it but getting into field goal range was going to take some work.
In the huddle, Darnold reminded his teammates to be clear about their assignments.
“He came in the huddle and he was like, ‘one play at a time boys, and no matter what happens, we move onto the next play,’” running back Aaron Jones said. “If there’s something you see, talking about it but don’t stick on that one play too long, just move onto the next one.”
That’s exactly what Darnold was forced to do. The drive started at the 21-yard line and then he took a 7-yard sack to start the drive. ESPN’s Gamecast gave the Bears a 63% chance to win the game at that moment. But Darnold didn’t stick on that one play. He completed a 7-yard pass to TJ Hockenson and then found Jordan Addison on third down for a conversion that gave the Vikings a 60% chance to win.
“I had no hesitation about trying to attack,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said.
“We had some negative plays but Sam was able to get us back on track,” Hockenson said. “The guy is absolutely how he is every single snap. He’s cool, calm, collected. That’s what you want as the leader of the huddle.”
Things didn’t exactly come easily for Darnold after that. Tight end Johnny Mundt committed a false start setting them back to first-and-15. Darnold erased that instantly with a 20-yard throw to Justin Jefferson for a first down.
On the next play, Darnold scrambled for seven yards but it came back due to a holding penalty. First-and-20.
He erased that too. The Vikings quarterback waited in the pocket for Hockenson to come open on a long-developing route and then layered the ball over a defender into his hands for a 29-yard gain setting up the game-ending field goal.
“Their linebackers were playing off a lot and I was able to move them a little bit,” Hockenson explained. “They are playing a lot of cover-2 for Jets [Jefferson]. They’re making sure he’s not going to wreck game game and we’re going to make the most of our opportunities when we can.”
Parker Romo booted the final kick through and Darnold could put the hat back on and walk into a 9-2 locker room.
“It was the most poise I’ve probably ever seen,” Jones said.
Inside the room following the game, teammates raved about his calmness through some rocky moments.
“He didn’t skip a beat,” guard Dalton Risner said. “That’s all you can ask from these guys who lead your team. He’s a dawg. He wasn’t nervous. He wasn’t scared….we answered when we needed to answer.”
“He just stays right here,” Risner continued, using his hand to demonstrate evenness. “Some QBs are really emotional and they are up here, down here. He just stays right here through the good and the bad. Even when he has a game like that and gets a game ball, he still stays [even].”
Resilience is becoming a trend for Darnold. There have been numerous occasions this year where he was able to fight back from miscues or put teams away with late drives. This time he had to do it with a foot injury that caused him to leave the game for a play. O’Connell noted that he still called a bootleg that required Darnold to move despite the fact he had just been briefly sidelined.
“His toughness and persistence throughout the game and really throughout the season deserves more credit than what he’s getting,” backup QB Nick Mullens said. “I can’t speak highly enough about the toughness that Sam has displayed.”
O’Connell talked postgame about identifying Darnold’s toughness as a quarterback years ago when he evaluated him coming out in the draft.
“Years and years ago, Cotton Bowl against Ohio State, it sounds crazy, but I remember watching that game with (Saints DE) Chase Young and (49ers DL) Nick Bosa basically hitting him on every single play,” O’Connell said. Had a ton of drop-back attempts and tried to will his team. They didn't end up winning the game, but I learned everything I needed to know then about his toughness and his makeup to be willing to stare down some real pressure every single snap you drop back. I think he's a mentally tough guy. I think he's a physically tough guy.”
The last two weeks have been particularly important in terms of Darnold’s toughness and resilience because the possibility existed for Darnold to slip after throwing three interceptions against the Jaguars. Instead he has played his best football of the season on the road against defenses with a lot of talent.
“I really do think it's as simple as that, and just not trying to do too much,” Darnold said. “If I feel like a play, I've got to scramble out of the pocket and it's not there, just throw it away, or sometimes if I need to take a sack, I'm willing to do that. Just continue to play within the system, within the game, and we'll continue to play solid as an offense.”
His excellence in the waning moments might outweigh possibly his best overall performance of the year versus a defense that entered with the 7th best QB rating allowed in the NFL. Darnold completed 22 of 34 passes for 330 yards and threw two touchdowns. ESPN’s QBR rated it as his biggest game of the season and the sixth showing of his career.
“Show me somebody that had a better game at the quarterback position,” O’Connell said. “That kind of game under those circumstances on the road in the NFC North.”
Fueling Darnold’s big day was Jordan Addison and TJ Hockenson taking full advantage of the Bears selling out to stop Jefferson. Addison had 162 yards on eight receptions and Hockenson made seven grabs for 114 yards. That’s 15 catches for 274 yards on 18 targets.
“JA had a huge game,” Darnold said. “His ability to just stay ready, stay prepared whenever his number is called, (TE) T.J. (Hockenson), the same thing. I felt T.J. had a really good game today. Just his ability when he's out there, he gets guys open. The defense is so locked into him at certain points in the game, whether it's 2nd and long, 3rd down, even 1st down at times, so his ability to just continue to stay with it and continue to show that resiliency, even throughout the game when he's not getting touches.”
It’s easier to play quarterback with a strong running game and Jones gained 106 yards on the ground and 23 yards through the air.
“The credit goes to the blocking unit up front — the O-line along with the tight ends and receivers, they were just dominating the line of scrimmage and when you’re dominating you can pick and choose which hole you want to go through and you have space and you’re setting up the runs and getting defenders where you want them to go,” Jones said.
The Vikings complete offensive effort also included protecting Darnold well up front despite Cam Robinson getting injured early in the game.
For the season, Darnold now has 2,717 yards, 21 touchdowns to 10 interceptions and a 101.7 quarterback rating. He has a chance to lead the Vikings down the stretch versus a group of opponents who will be scrapping for playoff position. That’s a spot where he’s rarely been during his career but he has proven more and more as the season goes along that he isn’t just along for the ride, rather he’s leading the charge.
“I think he's confident in the guys around him, and I think he's confident in our system,” O’Connell said. “When he just continues to play quarterback at a high level, I think we're a tough team. I really do. Playing quarterback at a high level might just be simply feet, eyes, rhythm, and letting kind of the play dictate and the coverage and putting the ball in play. He's done a really nice job two weeks in a row of that.”