Rams > Darnold

I mean good for Darnold, but that game turned on the Shaheed punt return. Prior to that Darnold had thrown 6 INT's in seven quarters of football against the Rams. He was abysmal. I'd take the Rams all day long in any kind of playoff rematch because I simply don't trust Darnold to play winning football. I said when they signed him that he'd be the reason their season came up short and I'll stick by that

JimmyinSD wrote:

i didnt actually watch the game,  but what I saw from the highlights it wasnt so much Seattle beating the Rams, it was more like the Rams lost to Seattle.  That backwards pass hitting the defender in the head and casually picked up by an offensive player for the conversion just screams case keenum's horseshoe.

Darnold did what every Vikings fan expected, until the very end. Then he delivered and won it. Stafford had no pressure and Darnold was pressured most of the game. Hard to predict what he will do going forward, but there is no doubt in my mind the Vikings would have been a playoff team if Darnold had been their QB this year. Instead, it appears, the Vikings an embarrassment in their division without a lot of hope for the near future.

hogjowlsjohnny wrote:

Darnold did what every Vikings fan expected, until the very end. Then he delivered and won it. Stafford had no pressure and Darnold was pressured most of the game. Hard to predict what he will do going forward, but there is no doubt in my mind the Vikings would have been a playoff team if Darnold had been their QB this year. Instead, it appears, the Vikings an embarrassment in their division without a lot of hope for the near future.

We were a playoff team with him last year,  but there wasn't really any hope of winning it all.  I challenge anybody that thinks he was going ro be the qb that put us over the top to go rematch last years games from an all 22 aspect and see how many plays he left on the field,   how long he would hold the ball with guys running open, how many sacks were on him amd not the OL.  It was a fun story,  but he wasn't the future so we moved on.  

Almost all young QBs have a year like this one starting out, the good ones learn from it faster so we should know sooner than later if we have our guy in JJM,  if not we go back to that well, either way SD was not our future anymore than simply making the playoffs is an acceptable goal.

JimmyinSD wrote:

We were a playoff team with him last year,  but there wasn't really any hope of winning it all.  I challenge anybody that thinks he was going ro be the qb that put us over the top to go rematch last years games from an all 22 aspect and see how many plays he left on the field,   how long he would hold the ball with guys running open, how many sacks were on him amd not the OL.  It was a fun story,  but he wasn't the future so we moved on.  

Almost all young QBs have a year like this one starting out, the good ones learn from it faster so we should know sooner than later if we have our guy in JJM,  if not we go back to that well, either way SD was not our future anymore than simply making the playoffs is an acceptable goal.

I definitely think he could have.  It was only his first year playing in our offense, with KOC and this team.  He was worlds better than he had been in his previous seasons.  Why wasn't it possible that he could have continued to have gotten better and improved upon his weaknesses.  He has a cannon for an arm, a quick release, great pocket presence, extremely smart and while not the fasted guy was able to slide well in the pocket to avoid pressure.  Also he was a great teammate and coachable.  We won 14 games with him, that was no fluke.  Think the narrative that we had to move on due to 2 poor games at the end was not valid, look at what he did Thursday, despite looking terrible for most of the game, he rebounded and made some big time clutch throws to win the game.

JR44 wrote:

I definitely think he could have.  It was only his first year playing in our offense, with KOC and this team.  He was worlds better than he had been in his previous seasons.  Why wasn't it possible that he could have continued to have gotten better and improved upon his weaknesses.  He has a cannon for an arm, a quick release, great pocket presence, extremely smart and while not the fasted guy was able to slide well in the pocket to avoid pressure.  Also he was a great teammate and coachable.  We won 14 games with him, that was no fluke.  Think the narrative that we had to move on due to 2 poor games at the end was not valid, look at what he did Thursday, despite looking terrible for most of the game, he rebounded and made some big time clutch throws to win the game.

Thats not my narrative,  he was showing decline as the season went on IMO.  I went to a few games last year and in person I was able to see his shortcomings getting worse,  not better.   Could he have gotten better,   its possible,  but what I saw from the start of the season to the end was he wasn't reading the defenses pre snap and he wasn't seeing the open receivers when the defenses brought pressure.  If I had to guess.... the qb whisperer got into his head to much and he started trying to think instead of just play.

StickierBuns wrote:

Yeah, me neither. Uncle Sammy still makes Uncle Sammy mistakes. He's a beautiful thrower of the pigskin, but I still maintain he's a bed wetter in aggregate big moments. JJ, even with all of the raw rookie moments, still has had game winning drives, divisional road wins and big 4th down moments already. In what, 8 games started? The moment will never be too big. I think with that and his obvious physical talent, maybe the team gets somewhere finally they've never been. Maybe. Long way to go yet obviously. But he's only 22....and I think his confidence has never been higher as a pro as it is right now. 

JMO, but next year, I think he's going to grab the QB1 job with both hands and never look back.

Why not today?