Blessing in disguise

[SmittysLawnGuy]

Ok so I'm trying to make cupcakes out of cauliflower here but hear me out. At first we sputtered without CMC. Once Sam knew his baby blanket got cooked to ash he manned up an started making down field plays. I actually believe this could be exactly what we needed. Mind you he needs to figure it out pretty quickly but when Mc is your 1st 2nd and 3rd option how are you growing? By the time CM gets back this guy might be reading D's. See those early wide open receivers down field? He didn't cause guess who he wanted to throw to? May cost us a game or two but it may be well worth it come January.

Edited September 24, 2021 by SmittysLawnGuy

[iamhubby1]

I was thinking kinda the same thing. By the time CMac gets back, maybe we have still kept our Mojo. Chuba looked good finishing the game. Royce can help as well. Maybe Brady can keep us cooking?

 

That, and our schedule is still pretty easy. We may not fall off as much as we may fear.

[TheBigKat]

It's never a 'blessing' to lose a top 3 NFL RB 

[Saca312]

Not a blessing, but it is a potential bright spot.

Losing the best safety valve of this offense is never ideal. 100 times out of 10 you'd rather have CMC healthy and Sam Darnold slowly getting acclimated to stepping up.

Nevertheless, it does jump the schedule for Darnold to start making plays for himself. His work tonight showed he does have what it takes. However, being able to build upon it and do it consistently is the question.

Ideally, he gets a few more weeks to get his groove in, but circumstances have brought him to the frontlines. Hopefully he shows he has what it takes.

[SmittysLawnGuy]

1 minute ago, TheBigKat said:

It's never a 'blessing' to lose a top 3 NFL RB 

Depends on your perspective. Does he make our QB better because he doesn't rely on him or are you Ok with losing in the wild card game but CMC got you 200 yards.

[tukafan21]

Creepy, I was about to start a thread with this exact phrase in the title.

As I said in the Horn thread, this isn't a SB team yet, so ironically, losing CMC for a little bit might be the best thing that could happen to this franchise.

I entered this year with literally, one and only one goal... to go into the offseason knowing if we want Darnold to be our franchise QB moving forward.

Yes, CMC in the game can certainly make him a better player of course, but there is no better way to know what he's got than to see him have to operate without CMC back there.  So yes, for the greater good of this franchise's future, I think playing the next month (or more) without CMC will actually be the best thing that could happen to us long term.

As I think if we leave this season thinking Darnold is our QB of the future, we'll be able to lock him up for 4-6 years at 20-25 million a year, which is going to be an ABSOLUTE BARGAIN in a year or two when bottom half of the league QB's are making near 30 million a year once the new TV contracts kick in.

This team in 2 years, with a bargain price QB could be SCARY dangerous with guys in their prime like DJ, Burns, Chinn, Brown, Horn, and hopefully a healthy CMC.

[panthers55]

You can't make much of the gameplan of Darnold to McCaffrey. When healthy he is the best player on the field. On a 4 day gamre on the road you have to go with basics and tried and true.  The halftime adjustments were great. And no matter how much you shine that turd it is still a turd. This was bad news unless he is back for Dallas. Darnold took a lot of abuse with McCaffrey out including missed blocking assignments with lineman  coming in untouched.

[mav1234]

For the franchise... I agree.  Darnold is going to be put to the test at a level we didn't expect much sooner without CMC.  So far, the 2nd half suggests he may be up to the challenge.  But we will see when it's against a better team.  I believe he can do it.

For our prospects this season, tho... We really need CMC to maximize the offense.

[SmittysLawnGuy]

4 minutes ago, panthers55 said:

You can't make much of the gameplan of Darnold to McCaffrey. When healthy he is the best player on the field. On a 4 day gamre on the road you have to go with basics and tried and true.  The halftime adjustments were great. And no matter how much you shine that turd it is still a turd. This was bad news unless he is back for Dallas. Darnold took a lot of abuse with McCaffrey out including missed blocking assignments with lineman  coming in untouched.

How do you not see that helping him when he's not there? Now when he comes back, poof magic!

[Snake]

I don't think it helps him in the least and prob hurts us a bunch. Either way nothing we can do about it. 

[CarolinaXblue]

14 minutes ago, Saca312 said:

Not a blessing, but it is a potential bright spot.

Losing the best safety valve of this offense is never ideal. 100 times out of 10 you'd rather have CMC healthy and Sam Darnold slowly getting acclimated to stepping up.

Nevertheless, it does jump the schedule for Darnold to start making plays for himself. His work tonight showed he does have what it takes. However, being able to build upon it and do it consistently is the question.

Ideally, he gets a few more weeks to get his groove in, but circumstances have brought him to the frontlines. Hopefully he shows he has what it takes.

Ain't no few more weeks. He's about to see 3 legit teams. May not have the best defenses in Dallas and Minnesota but Philly has a good D right now and the other 2 teams are high powered offenses. He's gonna have to score points. I believe in our D, but it's going to be hard to stop Dallas and Minnesota. 

[SmittysLawnGuy]

2 minutes ago, Snake said:

I don't think it helps him in the least and prob hurts us a bunch. Either way nothing we can do about it. 

Guess I'm nuts. Let's not teach Sam to throw to wide opened streaking receivers so we can get 8 yards to our broken down Ferrari.

[Sam the Cat]

More like a silver lining...but good point none the less.  Get those training wheels off sort a speak.

[Chad_Cota]

Reminds me of when Kelvin Benjamin went down and Cam was able to progress. Went 15-1 that season with Philly Brown.