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Hope this becomes a great story this season...
#1
Why new Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold is still worth believing in
Those who know Darnold are adamant that he can turn things around with the Vikings.

When it comes to veteran quarterback Sam Darnold, respected quarterback guru Jordan Palmer isn’t shy about his biases. They have worked together for much of the past decade, meaning Palmer has seen Darnold go from lightly recruited teenager to college football supernova to high draft pick whose NFL career was seemingly on life support.

All the while, Palmer has never lost his belief in Darnold.

“I’ve been watching him for a while,” Palmer said this spring in 10 minute break-down he posted on his personal YouTube account. “I just don’t see a big difference between what I’ve seen Sam do and what some of the best players in the league are doing. There are also a lot of things where I go, ‘Oh I think Sam is actually better than him at that.’ We just haven’t seen it in a good setting yet.”

That’s precisely why those who have seen Darnold at the peak of his powers in the past wholeheartedly believe he can turn things around with the Vikings. His struggles with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers don’t even begin to tell the story of how talented Darnold is at his core.

The anecdotes are abundant.

Ask longtime San Clemente High School football coach Jaime Ortiz about Darnold and he’ll reminisce about how ridiculously talented he was as a kid growing up in Southern California.

Ask former USC football coach Clay Helton about Darnold and he’ll rave about his leadership skills before launching into a soliloquy about his otherworldly performance in the Rose Bowl.

Ask current Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown about Darnold and he’ll gush about the friendship they built long ago and how that could help now that they have been reunited in Minnesota.

Now, as Darnold reports for training camp this week at TCO Performance Center in Eagan for his first season with the Vikings, the pieces are in place for him to rewrite the narrative. Though rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy is waiting in the wings to assume the throne after being selected by the Vikings with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Darnold is the starter at the moment, and he doesn’t plan on giving up the job anytime soon.

“I’m excited to see what happens,” Palmer said. “When I look at the list of things that a guy has to have to be great at this position in the league, and then I look at the list of things that Sam can do, those lists look the same to me.”

https://www.twincities.com/2024/07/19/wh...ieving-in/

‘He was going to be something special’

To truly understand Darnold, it’s important to go back to his roots. He grew up in San Clemente, a coastal city located between Los Angeles and San Diego, and while his parents Mike and Chris encouraged him play multiple sports, eventually football started to take precedence.

His arm talent was undeniable from an early age.

“The first time I saw him, he was a 6-year-old kid in our youth camp,” Ortiz said. “You could definitely tell he was going to be something special.”

That proved to be true for Darnold every step of the way.

He was regularly the best player on the field as a freshman in high school regardless of the competition. He made varsity as a sophomore and made an immediate impact despite playing out of position, once catching a slant for a touchdown, then on the very next series intercepting a pass and returning it for a touchdown. He got injured as a junior and his team lost every game without him under center. He returned as a senior, leading San Clemente to a 12-2 record, earning league MVP honors in the process.

There’s a particular game that stands out for Ortiz when thinking back on Darnold’s meteoric rise in the early years. After getting a college commitment from Darnold in the summer to play for Southern Cal, Helton came out to watch him play in the fall. The pressure was on for the matchup between San Clemente and Atascadero.

“You know how sometimes a recruiter comes out and a player tenses up and tries to do too much?” Ortiz said. “Not Sam. He was like 14 for 14 in the first half for close to 300 yards with 4 touchdowns before we ended up taking him out. He balled out that game because that’s what he does.”

‘That’s what a first-round quarterback looks like’

Never mind that former USC head coach Steve Sarkisian had already received a commitment from highly touted quarterback Ricky Town. Nothing was going to stop Helton from taking a look at Darnold.

“I was the offensive coordinator at the time and I asked (Sarkisian) if we could bring him in to evaluate him because I thought he was really special,” Helton said. “He came in and blew all of us away. I remember (Sarkisian) said, ‘That’s what a first-round quarterback looks like.’ We ended up taking a commitment from him, too, and thank goodness we did.”

It wasn’t long after Darnold arrived on campus that he put himself in the conversation to be the starter. Ultimately, the decision came down to experience, and incumbent quarterback Max Browne got the nod. A slow start spurred action, however, and Darnold ended up replacing Browne for a matchup between USC and Utah.

“We thought he was ready and we needed to give him a chance,” Helton said. “He went out there and played brilliantly in a hostile environment, and we lost a heartbreaker.”

In the first start of his collegiate career, Darnold completed 18 of 26 passes for 253 yards, putting USC in position to win the game before Utah scored with 16 seconds left.

“We were 1-3 at that point, and being 1-3 at USC is not very fun,” Helton said. “I remember coming out of that game, though, and being like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ I was so positive I knew we had something special in Sam. I told the rest of the coaching staff that there wasn’t a game left on the schedule that I didn’t think we could win with him at the helm.”

Sure enough, they ran the table, and Darnold emerged as a household name. He saved his best for last during his breakout season, leading USC to a thrilling 52-49 win over Penn State in the Rose Bowl, completing 33 of 53 passes for 453 yards and 5 touchdowns.

There is a moment from late in that game that still sticks with Helton nearly a decade later. After getting the ball back with 1 minute, 59 seconds left, Helton knew if USC went down and scored a touchdown, he was going to consider going for the win with a 2-point conversion rather than kick the extra point to tie.

“I said, ‘Hey Sam, if we score and it’s late enough, look at me, and I’ll say what we’re going to do,'” Helton recalled. “He goes out and leads us down the field and makes a ridiculous throw for a touchdown. Everybody else is going crazy around him and there’s this 18-year-old kid and the first thing he does is look at me. It blew me away. Just that poise he had.”

That’s what Helton thinks about whenever he’s asked about Darnold. He truly believes that he could still become a star, and he thinks the Vikings could help him reach his full potential.

“I’m so excited to watch him go shock the world,” Helton said. “I really am.”

‘He still has his best football in front of him’

As somebody who tends to keep his cards close to his chest, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell couldn’t bluff his way out of the question in the spring. Asked who the starting quarterback was going to be heading into the summer, O’Connell announced that Darnold would be atop the depth chart when training camp rolled around.

“I would say Sam would be the guy I would look to based upon the spring he’s had and really where he’s at in his quarterback journey,” O’Connell said. “He’s been able to come in and really hit the ground running and really kind of take advantage of a competitive situation.”

This type of opportunity has been a long time coming for Darnold.

He was selected by the Jets with the No. 3 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and immediately got thrown into the fire with little help around him. His confidence took a major hit and he was written off as a bust early in his NFL career. He got a fresh start via a trade to the Panthers and he parlayed that into a contract with the San Francisco 49ers, where he spent last year as the backup.

Now, after signing a 1-year, $10 million contract with the Vikings as a free agent, Darnold is getting what will likely be his final chance.

“We all sometimes have our greatest growth in moments of failure,” O’Connell said. “The level of that failure at this position tends to be magnified because it’s for all to see and wins or losses tend to get put on that player regardless of circumstance around them.”

The Vikings lineup will be by far the most talent Darnold has had around him. All that’s left for him to do is prove himself.

“I’ve always been a fan of Sam from the time he came out,” O’Connell said. “I think he still has his best football out in front of him.”

He’s not alone in that assessment.
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#2
It will be interesting. So much hype goes into the offseason NFL football write-ups , will this be just another fodder story for the 24/7 cycle? Or can Darnold actually turn his career around? He's been with 3 other teams already at only 26 years old, Minnesota being his 4th. Ideally, yeah it would be great for him and the team to shock the world. I'm rooting for him. But my guess is this is his last chance at being a starter in the NFL, no other team will give him this opportunity again if he fails. That's going to create some self-sustaining pressure. But when you look at Darnold's draft profile when he came out in 2018 and it's impressive: he has all the tangible physical ability and the intangibles as a college player. We just haven't seen those oh so important intangibles consistently in the pros.
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#3
I remember reading about Ricky Town. Another reminder of how many high school 5-star superstars flame out each year. It would be interesting to see how heavily recruited NFL starting QBs were coming out of high school. Here's a couple I know: Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes were 3-star recruits. Josh Rosen and Jameis Winston were 5-star recruits.

I've said this before, but if Darnold has a breakout year, it's really going to change how the NFL approaches drafting and developing QBs.
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#4
(07-21-2024, 07:23 AM)MaroonBells Wrote: I remember reading about Ricky Town. Another reminder of how many high school 5-star superstars flame out each year. It would be interesting to see how heavily recruited NFL starting QBs were coming out of high school. Here's a couple I know: Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes were 3-star recruits. Josh Rosen and Jameis Winston were 5-star recruits.

I've said this before, but if Darnold has a breakout year, it's really going to change how the NFL approaches drafting and developing QBs.

Here's a quote from Ricky Town in 2018 when he was trying his comeback at Pitt: 

“The biggest thing that I’ve learned is the importance of failure,” Town says. “If you’re perfect all the time, if you never fail at anything, you don’t progress. I think that’s been a big thing this whole college career of mine, just learning from my mistakes, and fessing up, like, ‘Yeah, OK, I messed that up. How can I get better?’ I was constantly failing and progressing.

“If you fail, it’s not really failure if you’re learning from it. But if you don’t progress from it, then, yeah, that’s failure.”

KOC mentions this for McCarthy....he has have failure and improve to get to his ultimate state. The reason that college football recruiting is so difficult is you just never know about the kids: Some are coddled, some are the products of the high school programs they are in and the talent around them, some have no work ethic and a few others don't like football. They are burnt out already.

But so it begins, another season of Viking's football.
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#5
Highly drafted QBs who bust are mostly physically gifted and mentally challenged. They've all got backstory telling advocating believers. Different coaches and teams don't really change things for them in most cases.

I hope he plays well but I expect him to have the same problems he's shown for 6 years--doesn't perform well or process under pressure. The team can scheme to mitigate some of that but it will still be on him to be way better than he's ever been before. There's a reason why our team win total in the betting markets is 6.5 and hasn't budged all year.
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#6
(07-21-2024, 07:23 AM)MaroonBells Wrote: I remember reading about Ricky Town. Another reminder of how many high school 5-star superstars flame out each year. It would be interesting to see how heavily recruited NFL starting QBs were coming out of high school. Here's a couple I know: Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes were 3-star recruits. Josh Rosen and Jameis Winston were 5-star recruits.

I've said this before, but if Darnold has a breakout year, it's really going to change how the NFL approaches drafting and developing QBs.

KOC will be anointed a saint or qb god if Darnold turns it around. 

We'll never know what %, but I suspect teams getting their hands dirty with qb development sent a lot of those rookies into the abyss unnecessarily. 

"Getting their hands dirty" is my own football insight of the 24 season. Its a great quote.
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#7
(07-21-2024, 08:41 AM)comet52 Wrote: Highly drafted QBs who bust are mostly physically gifted and mentally challenged.  They've all got backstory telling advocating believers.  Different coaches and teams don't really change things for them in most cases. 

I hope he plays well but I expect him to have the same problems he's shown for 6 years--doesn't perform well or process under pressure.  The team can scheme to mitigate some of that but it will still be on him to be way better than he's ever been before.  There's a reason why our team win total in the betting markets is 6.5 and hasn't budged all year.

I think most everybody expects Darnold to have his best year statistically if he stays healthy. I'd bet a mortgage payment on that. But there's a great distance between what would be his best season and what most would consider a good season for a QB. IOW, a breakout year. 

That's what most of us I think acknowledge is certainly possible, but unlikely. He has inherent flaws that are not going to just magically disappear, regardless of who he's throwing the ball to. And they will likely show up from time to time, frustrating team, media and fans alike. It will be a process. But I do like the odds of him playing well enough to allow the Vikings to keep 4-pick Nick on the bench and young JJ in QB school. 

FWIW, Fanduel had the Vikings at 6.5, but have since raised it 7.5. I'm telling you, get in now, Comet. When Darnold starts throwing dots in training camp and the preseason, the others will follow suit and you'll be saying "God I wish I listened to that MaroonBells guy."  Tongue
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#8
I don't care how "good" Darnold looks in OTAs, minicamp or preseason because he's done all that before only to shit the bed when it counts. He's been trash his entire career, and I'll expect nothing else until he shows me different in the regular season.
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#9
(07-21-2024, 11:41 AM)MaroonBells Wrote: I think most everybody expects Darnold to have his best year statistically if he stays healthy. I'd bet a mortgage payment on that. But there's a great distance between what would be his best season and what most would consider a good season for a QB. IOW, a breakout year. 

That's what most of us I think acknowledge is certainly possible, but unlikely. He has inherent flaws that are not going to just magically disappear, regardless of who he's throwing the ball to. And they will likely show up from time to time, frustrating team, media and fans alike. It will be a process. But I do like the odds of him playing well enough to allow the Vikings to keep 4-pick Nick on the bench and young JJ in QB school. 

FWIW, Fanduel had the Vikings at 6.5, but have since raised it 7.5. I'm telling you, get in now, Comet. When Darnold starts throwing dots in training camp and the preseason, the others will follow suit and you'll be saying "God I wish I listened to that MaroonBells guy."  Tongue

I just laid my entire net worth on the under. Smile
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#10
(07-21-2024, 03:45 PM)RS_Express Wrote: I don't care how "good" Darnold looks in OTAs, minicamp or preseason because he's done all that before only to shit the bed when it counts. He's been trash his entire career, and I'll expect nothing else until he shows me different in the regular season.

Totally agree and to me the biggest issue with Darnold is he just turns the ball over too much. Has done that his entire career and has never looked completely comfortable in any offense. KOC will have to do some epic coaching to funnel that out of him at this point in his career. Sometimes guys just don't have it though and no amount of coaching can change that. You do have rare cases like Steve Young, Rich Gannon, and Jim Plunkett who turn careers around in new environments, but its very rare. Hoping for the best, but expecting more of the same from Darnold
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