Sam Darnold is ignoring the outside noise, but time is running out for the Carolina Panthers quarterback to prove his worth in 2021.
The first three weeks of the season must seem like a distant memory for Sam Darnold. A stunning start to the campaign had many believing he could finally start living up to his first-round potential following his trade from the New York Jets, but what’s transpired since hasn’t been what the player or the Carolina Panthers expected.
Darnold‘s regression since this positive opening to 2021 has been staggering. The former USC star looks like a rabbit in the headlights without Christian McCaffrey and it all came to a head in Week 7 at the New York Giants when Matt Rhule opted to bench the signal-caller at the start of the fourth quarter.
No sooner had the game finished, speculation started to mount about the Panthers entering the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes once again. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated stated Carolina called the Houston Texans for the first time in a while, but the price tag and the team’s desire to sit down with the Clemson product meant they had to pull the plug, at least for the time being.
This won’t have gone unnoticed by Darnold, who remained calm and focused on his own performance when asked about the rumors during Wednesday’s media availability.
"“I’m not worried about it. I’m worried about doing my job every single day…making sure I execute and do my job every single play and every single day. That’s all I’m worried about right now.”"
It’s all well and good Darnold saying these things. But putting it all together on the field in a pressurized situation is a completely different matter.
Sam Darnold faces a huge task with the Carolina Panthers moving forward.
The player’s dip in form is worrying. Especially considering this is a similar pattern to what Darnold displayed consistently over his three years on the Jets – which eventually resulted in the team cutting their losses and using the No. 2 overall selection on Zach Wilson.
One doesn’t have to look far from a statistical standpoint to see where things are going wrong for Darnold. Just look at his production over the first three contests of his career in Carolina.
- 68.21% completion
- 888 passing yards
- 3 touchdowns
- 1 interception
- 6 sacks against
- 98.93 average passer rating
- 3 rushing touchdowns
Compare this to Darnold’s production over the next four games.
- 57.22% completion
- 790 passing yards
- 2 touchdowns
- 7 interceptions
- 15 sacks against
- 60.8 average passer rating
- 2 rushing touchdowns
This is alarming, to put it mildly.
In truth, Darnold might already be past the point of no return and unless he can figure things out at the Atlanta Falcons in Week 8, it’s only going to get messier as the opposition becomes a lot tougher over the second half of the campaign.
The Panthers saw something in Darnold, giving up second and fourth-round picks to secure his services, sending Teddy Bridgewater to the Denver Broncos for a sixth-rounder and an astronomical $17 million dead-cap figure for good measure.
There have been some nice moments. But his footwork is a problem and when it comes to processing information on the field, Darnold leaves a lot to be desired.
McCaffrey masked a lot of these problems. The offensive line should also be doing more to help their signal-caller.
However, a lot of the problems surrounding Darnold come from within and he only has himself to blame.
Sunday game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium is the most important of Darnold’s career by a considerable margin. Another lackluster display is simply not an option.