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Sam Darnold [QB, USC]


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The golden child with the questionable throwing motion, everyone was excited for this kid coming in to the season. Last year fans advocated passing on the quarterbacks available for the shiny, less ripped apart class of this year,  and he was pretty well regarded as the top guy out of that stable. The tank slogans were out in full force, and heading in to the season, it seemed almost a foregone conclusion that he was going to be the top pick if he elected to come out. Then everyone remembered that a season had to be played. To say that Darnold has suffered through an inconsistent, up and down season is probably an understatement. 

The most recent report I have heard on Darnold, I believe from Albert Breer, states that Darnold is leaning toward coming out, despite the sometimes shaky play this year. After another not so great start tonight against a Notre Dame team that blew the doors off USC, what are your guys thoughts on him as a prospect, and what do you make of this season? Is this a troubling indicator of a guy that was grossly overhyped headed into the season, or some minor hiccups on the path of a guy that should still be a top 3 pick and possibly the number one overall? His numbers are down across the board, and he's already thrown more interceptions this year than he did all of last season...and there's a lot of season left. 

That being said, I think I lean more toward this being traditional growing pains of a young quarterback, and I'm not super concerned. As a fan of the 49ers, I have no issues if we take him in the top 3 if he's there, though right now I do lean more toward Rosen who I may feel is just a tiny bit safer from an on the field standpoint. I think people tend to forget how raw he is as a quarterback. He basically only had one year of quarterback in high school, and he's had only  a little more than a season's worth of college starts between this year and last so far. Also, USC has been hit by some injuries, for sure, particularly at the offensive line, where the team had already lost 3 starters from last year. That's getting pretty into the depth chart. While that doesn't excuse everything,, particularly with regard to poor accuracy and decision making (though he hasn't fallen below that red line of 60% which is good), I think it does layer some context to the year. While the season has been a disappointment from what I wanted to see coming into it, I largely think that he's going through some growing pains, having to learn to adjust to situations, etc. No, he's not the ideal quarterback prospect that everyone wanted to make him out to be following the Penn State game last year, but there's still a ton to like here. 

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Honestly, I think this is a case of a player who had way too much expectations coming into the season and his "struggles" this year are magnified as a result.  People had him pegged as the early favorite for 1st overall pick, and his numbers have regressed this year.  Obviously, there's still time to buff up those numbers but if he wasn't being pegged as the first overall pick coming into the year I think there'd be a LOT more optimism about him.

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I'm in the minority on this, but I would take Lamar Jackson #1 overall.  Probably a big risk and maybe not justified, but I think he has great potential.  I don't really watch college football as closely as most of you do, but that I just really love Jackson.

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2 hours ago, showtime said:

I'm in the minority on this, but I would take Lamar Jackson #1 overall.  Probably a big risk and maybe not justified, but I think he has great potential.  I don't really watch college football as closely as most of you do, but that I just really love Jackson.

I don't think that's super crazy...he's got that kind of upside.  I definitely think he's going to go in the top half of round one, so if you can go in the upper half of round 1, I think you can go number one. You can argue that he and Josh Allen have the two highest ceilings in the draft, but I feel like the floors are pretty low on both of them. They are both huge risks. 

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5 hours ago, CWood21 said:

Honestly, I think this is a case of a player who had way too much expectations coming into the season and his "struggles" this year are magnified as a result.  People had him pegged as the early favorite for 1st overall pick, and his numbers have regressed this year.  Obviously, there's still time to buff up those numbers but if he wasn't being pegged as the first overall pick coming into the year I think there'd be a LOT more optimism about him.

An awful lot of people way overreact to a player's performance during the season. Especially for QB's who are more and more, coming out for the draft as juniors and are therefore a lot more raw that in previous generations. Pro scouts do not really care about individual games, especially when evaluating juniors, juniors get special treatment at the Combine because they are so far from being a finished product, while with seniors, what you see is usually what you get at the next level, that is why potential and ceiling is so important for the junior class.

QB's need time to grow and with experience, they tend to get a lot better if the potential is there. Darnold is still in the running with Rosen and will likely go 1/2 in the draft with him. With either guy, we are seeing very raw talents who will need time to perfect their skills and abilities. Every junior QB who went high in the draft, gets over analyzed by draftniks and criticized for making errors or showing bad form. I would say only about 10% of people last season saw Trubisky, Watson and Mahomes as 1st round talents, but that is exactly where they got drafted. Pro GM's have a much clearer picture of the ceiling for a prospect and if they have the talent as a GM to assess the potential of a prospect, they will not hesitate to pull the trigger and draft him, no matter all the nit picking that goes on around them.

If Darnold and Rosen and Allen all returned for their senior seasons, we would all get a far better look at their skill and abilities in action. As juniors, they are going to make an awful lot of errors and GM's and scouts have learned when to overlook them and see the whole forest and not just the tree. For that reason, yes, you can get more flops than you may like, but that is the reality of drafting in today's world. Th\\

The 2018 draft is a QB friendly draft and as many as 6 could find themselves picked in round 1 and likely QB's go 1/2 in this draft. Will they all succeed, of course not, there will be flops, as the talent of GM's to assess talent varies by quite a bit, so we can nit pick all we want, this is what may likely still occur and those who succeed will get a lot of I told you he was great and if they flop, we will hear from those who hated them all along, saying how dumb that team is for drafting them.

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30 minutes ago, August4th said:

Never trust the word of someone who used to post here xD

 

But seriously, in about the last 10 days, we've heard from Breer that he's leaning on coming out, and not leaning on staying from Allbright. Personally, until he declares one way or the other, I'm simply going to assume that he's coming out. 

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Why would he go back to school for inferior coaching, a year less of big NFL money and the possibility of completely torpedoing his stock and millions of dollars. He only has to look at the position within his own school to know it's a bad idea. You can't really use the reasoning of trying to avoid the Browns either because they will probably be just as bad next year.

Get out of college and away from the terrible coaching of Helton and Martin. Turn professional and start unlocking your potential with real football coaches.

College football seems to be the only sport where people tell you go back to school and spend another year regressing in an amateur environment.

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I still like Darnold, personally. I have to continue to watch more, but he still reminds me a bit of a poor man's Andrew Luck. I think Darnold gets sloppy with mechanics, specifically on those "hero" type plays like Luck did at Stanford. Darnold hasn't had the start I think most were hoping for, but his top WR is a former walk-on and I think the general talent at USC, while good, is a bit overrated right now. Also, it's good to put things into context. While Darnold isn't lighting up the world number-wise like I believe some expected or hoped, Darnold has 8 INT's over his last 7 games, while people seem to forget that Luck had 7 INT's over his final 6 collegiate games. 

Darnold and Josh Rosen were both good against Stanford as well, a team that has completely shutdown every other passing attack including decimating Oregon most recently.

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Watched every snap of Darnold this year and as a USC fan I say this without bias and regard for our team next year but he SHOULD come back for another year. He's not ready for the NFL yet, physically he is but he is too inconsistent with his mechanics, footwork, and decision making. If an NFL team picks him high they will have way too much pressure from the outside to start him right away and while I think he would figure it out, it's gonna take a while.

He would greatly benefit from coming back another year and working out some kinks. This team he's playing with right now is very young and the OL has had numerous injuries and a lot of shuffling. He's got a good RB in Jones but his WR's and TE's probably lead the NCAA in drops and are very young except for Burnett and Petite. He tries to do too much and while he can make some plays at he QB position that you rarely see, he needs to be more consistent and trustful in his reads and mechanics.

If he was to come out this year, I'd hope for him to go somewhere like the Giants where he could hopefully sit and learn for a year behind Eli. It's been stated over and over again that he's new to the position and it's very true. Was a big basketball guy growing up, played other positions besides QB while former Utah QB Travis Wilson was the starting QB at San Clemente and even when he was a QB he wasnt a big camp or circuit guy, he played basketball. 

He's raw and boy is he exciting but he's not quite ready yet. But watch out, I know he'll figure it out. 

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Why go back and potentially lose millions due to injury or being further exposed? Aside from Bradford I feel that the more tape these quarterbacks put out there, the further they start to slip in the following seasons. Unless his family is loaded and he loves college, might as well declare, get drafted, and have a year head start on an NFL playbook.

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