So... Sam Darnold. Are you encouraged or discouraged

[Chief Keek]

He was able to bounce back from those bad drives but his decision making is still questionable.

[hepcat]

Y’all. This was the Steelers backups. Sam was acceptable against backups. He didn’t light it up and they left plenty of points on the field.

The bigger issue is how horrible the offensive linemen were.

Tampa’s D-Line might end Darnold’s season playing like a bunch of Ray Charles and Stevie Wonders like Smitty said. 

[SizzleBuzz]

"arm talent"...

[ThPantherFan]

44 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Discouraged that he still sees ghosts and panics at the first hint of pressure.

He settled down.  Will only get better.

[LinvilleGorge]

7 minutes ago, hepcat said:

The bigger issue is how horrible the offensive linemen were.

This. Darnold still showed panic when pressured and he's probably she'll shocked from his Jets days. He needs good protection to have a shot at rehabbing his career. We gotta get this OL fixed somehow.

[Davidson Deac II]

Neither encouraged nor discouraged.  Its preseason.  

[frankw]

43 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

He has a better arm than cam

The disrespect around here is wild. Players get older. As a rook he dropped almost 900 yards on two defenses. If Sam can scratch the surface of that in the deep passing game we will be cooking.

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, frankw said:

The disrespect around here is wild. Players get older. As a rook he dropped almost 900 yards on two defenses. If Sam can scratch the surface of that in the deep passing game we will be cooking.

Ya gotta get better at ignoring the obvious troll posts.

[Madwolf]

Some good and bad tonight. I think Sam will be okay, but we have to keep him upright and not let him start hearing footsteps.

There was a clear difference between "good Sam" and "bad Sam" tonight, and you could see it when his feet started dancing or not.

If we get him right between the ears we might have something here.

[Sam the Cat]

36 minutes ago, onmyown said:

you might get poo for that but it’s the truth.

however a small amount of hope remains in that it is extremely hard to judge a qb on this team with the mini traffic cones we call the oline

I'll say jumbo cones at least!

[TylerDurden]

The last drive, I saw promise, so ultimately it left me encouraged.  But only slightly.  I'm hoping he can hold onto that momentum and it leads him to reaching his full potential here...  but, as I said in the other thread, the line wasn't terrible while he was in, and yet, he had some very Clausen-like, panic-induced moments early.  Those two extremes bother me, but I feel like watching that last drive, if he can string some great plays and drives together, I think it could change his entire career trajectory once he feels the confidence that he can and is making plays.

[Jon Snow]

Honestly,  I thought he looked like a rookie.  A good rookie,  but still a rookie. One that is still learning this offense and his targets.  The offensive line is not doing him or this team any favors.  I think Rhule will be forced to throw the two rookies in there if things don't improve in a hurry. 

[Harbingers]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Both.

Encouraged by the way he threw the ball in a clean pocket.

Discouraged that he still sees ghosts and panics at the first hint of pressure.

And that wasn’t a first string defense either. 

[top dawg]

I have to see more. He was somewhat uneven. Our O-line didn't help matters.