Making the case for Panthers QB Sam Darnold despite recent struggles

Sam Darnold has seemed to collapse into old habits in the past three losses with each looking worse than the last, but is that the whole story?

Once touted as the next great quarterback coming out of college, Sam Darnold is already at a crossroads regarding his long-term future with the Carolina Panthers. This is nothing new, with the signal-caller seeing many twists and turns in his young career with more downs than ups.

Suffering through playing for the New York Jets will do that to a player.

But all of that seemed to have changed after a short jog down the coast from New York to Carolina. With the young signal-caller having the best production and consistency of his career through the first three-to-four weeks.

Darnold completed almost 70 percent of his passes in the first four weeks of the 2021 season and threw for at least 300 yards in three of the four contests.

However, cracks began to show in Week 4 against the Dallas Cowboys.

After a typical first half of consistency and smart decision making, the Cowboys dialed up the pressure in the third quarter and Darnold crumbled along with the offensive line into multiple interceptions.

A trend that has seemed to stick, with the quarterback throwing three picks in the next game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

But that right there is the key to it all.

Pressure.

In the Panthers’ three losses on the year, Darnold was sacked five, three, and five times which would make any quarterback get a little squirrelly. Especially when they have been through what the former USC standout has.

With that said, many are quick to point at how bad things were for Darnold with the Jets. But let’s take a look at that shall we?

In just six games in the black and blue, Darnold has been hit 21 times while throwing, hurried on 22 occasions, and faced 48 blitzes.

Compare that to a full season with the Jets and those stats are right on track.

Not exactly night and day now is it?

This also does not take into account the horrendous amount of drops that occurred in Week 6.

Sam Darnold needs help from the Carolina Panthers considering his limitations.

Every quarterback, even Patrick Mahomes, makes mistakes when under constant pressure and comes up with good decisions when given time. Darnold proved that on the final drive of the game against the Minnesota Vikings, in which the player delivered multiple perfect passes from a relatively clean pocket to tie the game.

Yes, Darnold needs to shoulder some of the blame and play better. But there is only so much he can do when running for his life on every snap.

Who would perform well in any job given those circumstances?

Just imagine for a moment trying to put a dollar into a vending machine with a 300-pound man running to drive you into the ground as hard as they can.

Wouldnt be easy, would it?

That is what Darnold has had to contend with all year and especially in the last three games. It’s no wonder the quarterback hasn’t gone through his progressions, there wasn’t any time to.

This is illustrated perfectly by a play I saw in Week 6 where John Miller was chasing his assigned block toward Darnold. That’s not how that works.

With the exception of Taylor Moton, who has also struggled at times, this offensive line was a disaster from inception and that is why Darnold has regressed into old habits.

It’s the same situation if not worse.

The only thing missing now is for Darnold to get a random illness, and that’s without considering Joe Brady’s playcalling which has been just as bad on occasions.

Can this be fixed? Not this season.

I hate to say it. But buckle up folks it’s gonna be a long one.

Darnold will never be Tom Brady. However, he is also not Ryan Leaf.

When examining his tools – not his processing – Darnold has all the things you want in a franchise quarterback when given the opportunity to use them. The weapons are there, the intangibles are there, the only thing he needs is time.

The Panthers front office took a gamble at the most important position and it blew up in their faces. That isn’t all on Sam Darnold and he should not be blamed for it.