Sam Darnold – quarterback bust – all the way to Sam Darnold – superstar QB – in the space of just three short weeks. The National Football League is a weird and fickle old place sometimes, isn’t it? Of course, things are fractionally more complicated than that over-reactionary description of how things are for the Carolina Panthers’ fourth-year signal-caller, who goes into a matchup with the Dallas Cowboys this weekend having collected more victories this September than he did all of last season. When he was moved on from the New York Jets, traded away for a few draft picks so the J-E-T-S could lay out the welcome mat for No. 2 overall draftee Zach Wilson, Darnold had precious little gravitas surrounding him and a résumé littered with question marks. Now, after a trio of season-starting triumphs with his new pals in Carolina, it is becoming swiftly accepted that it’s time for a rethink. Darnold may not be an absolute franchise-shifting stud, but he’s showing more than enough to suggest the prior evaluations were off the mark and that he has value as a genuinely solid starting QB. “It shows you when you put talent around a player, you give him competent coaching, and somewhat blocking, this kid can play,” Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe said on FS1’s “Undisputed.” “I’m not saying he’s going to be (Patrick) Mahomes or Tom Brady or one of these historically great QBs. But I’m saying he is a competent QB. They made it seem like the kid was a bust. He’s not a bust. They’ve (just) got pieces around him so he doesn’t feel like he doesn’t have to do everything.” Darnold’s case makes you think. Yes, he looks to be playing better in Carolina than he did in New York, but the reality is that it’s hard to discern how much of a quarterback’s difficulties come from their own inefficiencies and how much from the situation they find themselves in. How different might multiple careers have looked but for the fates of the draft order? Top picks have little choice in where they are going to end up. Back in 2018, the Jets wanted Darnold and they were going to get him, selecting him with the No. 3 pick in the draft after Baker Mayfield went first to the Cleveland Browns and Saquon Barkley second to the New York Giants. And so Darnold ended up in a disjointed system, with substandard protection and receiving options, and, surprise, surprise, didn’t exactly set the world on fire. The Jets have been a dead zone for QBs for a long, long time, and so it was again. Now Darnold’s replacement Wilson is the one lurching from one set of struggles to another. “Wilson knew this wasn’t going to be easy,” wrote Mark Cannizzaro in the New York Post. “But two offensive touchdowns in three games? No touchdowns in the last eight quarters? Three first-half points in three games? Seven interceptions and a league-high 15 sacks? “Wilson probably didn’t think it was going to be that rough.” Is Wilson a bust already, or is he just in an unwinnable spot? Truthfully, we may never know the full answer, or not until he eventually winds up on another team down the road, if it transpires that way. Darnold is making the most of his second chance and is clearly loving life. He wasn’t pleased about being traded, feeling that the new Jets brain trust of head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur would actually suit him pretty well. Hmm, maybe. Either way, he’s sure delighted about how it shook out now. This weekend he gets the chance to make it four in a row and add to what has been one of the cheerier stories of the opening month. Carolina has faced some uninspiring opponents, sure, but the Panthers pass rush with strength and intensity and protect Darnold well when the ball is in his hands. “No. 1, if you watch the way we called the game, it means we trust him,” Panthers head coach Matt Rhule said after last Thursday’s thumping of the Houston Texans. “I just think in my mind, I say to myself all the time, these are professional football players. Let them go play. Don’t try to over-manage the game. Let them go make plays.” Darnold might have to make a few extra plays on Sunday at Dallas, (1 p.m. ET on FOX), with Christian McCaffrey, arguably the best running back in pro football, sidelined with an injury. His absence has had an impact on the odds – FOX Bet has the Panthers as a 4.5-point underdog, and at +170 straight up to beat the Cowboys. But you can expect Darnold to remain unflappable. He’s not under as much pressure these days and he’s making the most of it. Darnold isn’t the most outspoken talker and he’s not going to say much inflammatory stuff, however well or poorly things go. But sometimes the simplest comments reveal a bit more than they’re supposed to, and all you need to know about Darnold right now is this: “I don’t want to talk too much about New York,” he said last week. “That’s in the past for me.” Here’s what others have said … Shannon Sharpe, “Undisputed” on FS1: “It’s amazing how different Sam Darnold looks with coaching, blocking and talent around him.” Troy Aikman, FOX Sports NFL analyst: “When [Darnold] found out he was going to Carolina, and he got into the program and the offense, he has been re-energized and he has been playing with a lot more confidence.” Rob Ninkovich, ESPN NFL analyst: “What he’s been able to do coming from the Jets, turning Carolina into a 3-0 team and looking competitive. Darnold doesn’t have the stats of a [Matthew] Stafford or some of the other guys, but if he can get the Panthers back into the playoffs and get his career back on track, then he could be an MVP player in the future.” |
