Monday Morning Thoughts: Maybe All Sam Needed Was Time

Final thoughts on Carolina's win over Denver.

Who knew that Sam Darnold could be exactly what the doctor ordered for this Carolina Panthers team? Not me. Not Scott Fitterer. Not Matt Rhule. And certainly not a large portion of the fan base. 

I get it. It's only one game and he wasn't asked to do much as he completed only 11-of-19 pass attempts for 164 yards and a score, but he didn't need to "light it up". When you have a horse in the backfield like D'Onta Foreman and a defense that is getting better with each passing week, all you need to do as a quarterback is not mess everything up. Manage the game, make a few plays here and there, and avoid the colossal mistake.

"I thought he did a good job today," Panthers interim head coach Steve Wilks said of Darnold in his postgame press conference. "I still got to evaluate the tape. But again, [he] managed the game, ran the offense efficiently, connected down the field at times. We moved the pocket. He did a good job of getting outside. We tried to establish that early on, so on the surface, pretty good."

Wilks also stated that Darnold will remain as the team's starting quarterback following the bye week for their next game against the Seattle Seahawks. 

The one thing that kind of crept into my mind is how Darnold has never truly been set up for success in the NFL. That doesn't mean that he's in the perfect situation now or that he's all of a sudden going to become the quarterback everyone projected him to be when he came out of USC. But there are many reasons to believe that missing the first eleven games of the season could actually be the best thing that could have ever happened to him. 

The Jets completely mishandled his indoctrination to the league and when you do that at that position, sometimes you don't ever get that player's confidence back. So, yes, maybe sitting for a long period of time for the first time since entering the league allowed Sam to watch from afar, giving him that learning period that he missed out on as a rookie to really soak everything in.

Darnold spoke to that on Sunday.

"Yeah, I think you learn a ton when you are out. To be able to sit back and watch and realize on first and second down, it’s ok to check the ball down if something is not there if you don’t get the premiere look that you want. And on third down, making a play, making sure that you’re not turning the ball over, you’re not fumbling the ball, but also understanding it is third down, we need to try get this first down. If you scramble or try to make something happen and you take a sack or you have to throw it into some coverage, and obviously you don’t want to throw a pick. What I am trying to say is, it’s understanding situational football and I think that’s the biggest thing that I have learned since being out, is just that. I think if I can continue to learn that, I will continue to grow as a player."

This theory of Darnold needing to sit for an extended period of time to be successful may be put to rest in two weeks when he takes the field against Seattle. But in the meantime, it's something to chew on. No, Ben McAdoo didn't give him many opportunities to throw the ball but it was his first real game action in nearly a year. They were never going to come out throwing the ball 35+ times in this game. It may have only been 19 attempts, but it's clear as day that the coaching staff has more confidence in Darnold to take shots down the field and it's easy to see why, especially when you rewatch the 52-yard completion to DJ Moore.

What also gives folks hope is that Darnold has never had this good of offensive line play in his career. The Jets had an atrocious offensive line and Carolina's last year wasn't much better. This current group of Ekwonu-Christensen-Bozeman-Corbett-Moton is one that could help Darnold regain his confidence in the pocket and potentially morph into a respectable starting quarterback.

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