BrianS

Darnold needs to look like a franchise QB consistently over a season. It's really that simple. It's not something you can always put numbers around or easily define, but you can SEE it when you watch.

That's actually not the case. In his time in KC, Smith was much more willing to air it out. In fact, TB5's "best" season barely beats out Smith's worst FULL season. Smith is a far better QB than Teddy.

My recollection was that he injured himself.

Good numbers. If his production continues along those lines in those situations it will bode well. Sam can't control the protection he gets, but he can control what he does when it's there.

For all the crap Grier has taken around here, some of it earned, we definitely shouldn't be hatin' on him now. He's actually played fairly well this preseason.

Cam Newton, Christian McCaffrey, Robby Anderson, DJ Moore, Dan Arnold, Terrace Marshall . . . I'm not sure I can name a better offensive skill group ever. Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Az-Azhir Hakim, Ricky Proehl maybe? Toss in Jordan Gross at LT and hand us the next three Lombardis.

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.