4 critical flaws that Carolina Panthers QB Sam Darnold cannot fix

Sam Darnold struggles with progressions

One of the main problems surrounding Sam Darnold is an inability to progress through his reads quickly and efficiently. The Carolina Panthers have plenty of talent in the passing game who are getting open consistently, but the signal-caller isn’t doing enough to find the open man.

This comes down to football IQ and an ability to focus on the task at hand despite everything going on around them. Something that separates the good quarterbacks from the great.

Darnold has the arm talent as possesses sneaky athleticism. But that counts for nothing if the intelligence to go from one read to the next isn’t there.

Carolina’s offensive line came in for some severe criticism earlier in the campaign. But they’ve more than held their own of late and this makes Darnold’s lack of production even more disappointing.

Quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan has probably done all he can to rid these errors from Darnold’s game. If the respected figure hasn’t solved this riddle by now, he never will.

That’s the long and short of it, unfortunately.

Carolina gambled heavily on Darnold making a better go of things with a significant increase in talent around him. But the concerns surrounding the player before joining the Panthers have come to fruition, and then some.