Two quick comments about Sam I am. One Sam was stuck on teams that sucked Jets 18-20, Carolina 21-22. Sam then went to two good teams. SF 2023 then Minn 2024. The lasrt part of the seaon injuries and some flaws on the offensive line surfaced in Minn. So what did Minn do during the offseason. from CBS:
The Minnesota Vikings have made significant changes to their offensive line for the 2025 season, particularly on the interior. They've signed veteran center Ryan Kelly and right guard Will Fries, who have experience together from their time in Indianapolis. Additionally, they drafted Donovan Jackson in the first round, according to CBS News.
So was Sam playing above his paygrade with a less than stellar offensive line that McVay and Detroit schemed better than Minn did end of season. They also had interior line injuries. If the media is going to thrash Sam I am then they ought to deal with all attributing factors. He may be playing with a better offensive line this year and a better running game. Interesting possiblities. Nothing counts until you have played the games so comparing Sam in SF or Minn to the Jets and Minn (and now Seattle) is like comparing McDonalds to Daniels Steakhouse in Seatle. Perhaps Seattle and Sam I am will have the last laugh.
I saw a page today that was pretty shocking. Trevor Lawrence and Daniel Jones have nearly identical stats thru their careers so far. And they’ve both earned major new contracts and Lawrence at least is ranked above Darnold. Man talk about running on fumes, Lawrence is still getting credit for having been a can’t miss QB out of high school. Has never earned it in the NFL though
Yes and it does raise the question for #1 picks: how much of the many failures we’ve witnessed is due to the dysfunctional team performance/environment required to “earn” the #1 pick.
It’s a conundrum. I’ve come to believe that unless a top 3-5 draft team can land a QB who they see as Pro Bowler, they’re better off drafting a tackle or EDGE—assuming availability. There’s no way that Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson should have been top 5 picks. (I can honestly say this isn’t hindsight on my part, not after I heard Randy Mueller’s assessment of both. He had Richardson as Day 3 and believed that many teams wouldn’t have Young on their board.)
So many questionable choices pollute the data. Like Cam Ward this year who may have been 5th-7th QB taken last year. GM’s rolling the dice make the data almost unreadable. But I’m with you, if a guy’s not a slam dunk, don’t take him
Although most people would say Lawrence was as slam-dunk as Andrew Luck had been. Who BTW got drafted into a pretty good team to be picking #1…
So I guess this year #1 should have been Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter, prob the only two guys who would be top 10 in various draft years (not just in the weak 2025 class)
The national media knows we no longer have Geno or DK or Tyler. They don’t know or value any other players on the team. They downgrade Kubiak because he’s twice been attached to head coaches who lost their job after his first season as OC.
Fine.
Darnold will or won’t. We’ll find out together. With an incredibly young offensive line it could get dicey early.
We have to trust the process. The core of the team and coaching staff has to be together for a few seasons. Even if this one goes south.
This reminds me of the Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl winner in the 2000-01 season. They dominated on defense and won with Trent Fricken Dilfer at QB. Dilfer couldn’t have been rated much higher than Darnold is now by the “experts”. If Darnold can manage the games without giving the ball away, and the MM defense progresses, this is a potential Super Bowl team.
Yes, I watched the playoff game last year, and Darnold was just terrible. Can’t sugar coat it. But if he learned from his mistakes…
I think we saw peak-Geno, and it wasn’t going to take us to the promised land. Those red zone picks were ripping my heart out of my chest.
BTW, I still have affection for Trent for playing for us the Sunday after his son died. He wasn’t a hall of famer, but I’ll never forget him for that.
A running game and mobility was a pre-requisite of his playing style. Age slows us all down. Some QBs who are pure pocket passers can reduce the incline of the fall. Russ was never a pocket QB and the incline was a steep cliff indeed.
Russell’s knee nearly getting torn up while under the “protection” of Bradley Sowell and J’Marcus Webb didn’t help. That he didn’t miss time is tribute to RW, but his mobility and speed were never the same.
Having lived through the Geno Smith experiment, I'm completely content to live with the Sam Darnold era, especially after seeing what coach Mac is building. In Seattle, it's never been about 1 player, Wilson felt different, but it was always about the D keeping us in the game and knowing or hoping that Russ would finish it, kinda feeling the same way about this upcoming season.
I agree with your article completely. The national press doesn’t give us the respect we deserve.Im guessing in the last 15 years we have the 5th or 6th best winning record in the NFL. (Some body help me here) MM led us to a 10 & 7 record in his first year. We've had one of the best drafts in the league over the last few years. Now they are predicting us not to win over 7 games this season. How many times in the past 10 years have we not won over 9 games. I think we made a great decision hiring MM. Let’s ride this out and show the rest of the league we deserve to be a top 10 team agin. This should be a fun year with all the new players and watching the 2nd & 3rd year players Mature! Go Seattle!!!
Sam Darnold comes out pretty good...I know it's just 'one stat' but I like EPA and this is a takeoff of that logic.
Hoping we get the new updated version of Sam Darnold one that can competently mange our team, I think he's got what it takes, we give him half a chance and provide some line upgrades and we'll see. As I re-watch last season it is so obvious we need to solve the O-line before we can even evaluate the offense or anyone in it. And I know I've seen it written already, but if we have a league average O-line we are going to be vastly improved. Let's hope between coaching and play-calling and injection of new talent we get this thing corrected. I for one am very excited about the potential of this new regime. I have been skeptical and still have doubts about some of the draft selections, but I see potential in all of them, which is great (and not typical from my perspective). I wanna see these guys get after it, I can't wait to watch them in practice. Let's go!!!
The Seahawks are not getting much love anywhere. Team, players, coaches. I’m totally fine with all of it. Play the games and we’ll see. I think Sam can function just fine in this offense as long as he just stays within himself and doesn’t try to do too much. Protect the football. There are times when he doesn’t trust his eyes right away and the ball comes out late as a result. Hopefully Kubiak can work with him on that.
I'm sorry, but all I could think of when you came to the end was, "Damn, Geno was lots better than that." I don't expect anyone to be more accurate than Geno, but if Sam can keep his TD/INT ratio respectable and his completion percentage improves to 67% or better. I mean, why even start him, or at least why not let Drew Lock, Jalen Milroe, and Sam compete for the starting job?
I loved Geno when he was here. But he preferred to be with Pete, and I think Kubiak preferred Darnold. Hopefully Kubiak’s faith in Darnold turns out to be warranted.
I don’t take NFL player rankings seriously. QBs play different schedules with different degrees of difficulty; some play mostly indoors, others play mostly outdoors; they play under different weather conditions; the health and quality of the rest of the team vary—that’s what comes to mind without giving it much thought. In short, once you regress the differences, there’s little to compare. To me, this is a silliness that comes with justifying 365/24/7 coverage of a sport.
Rankings can be useful under certain circumstances. For example, that JSN is ninth in overall catches but doesn’t come close to ninth in any other receiving category makes me wonder about the his degree of impact. Or, to put it positively, it tells me that he has room to develop. On the other hand, it doesn’t say much at all how about how good he is relative to another receiver.
I believe Kubiak wanted Darnold over Geno. He knew him fairly well. So I have a good feeling he is not going to be a Justin Fields or a washed up Russell Wilson
It’s not just Sam Darnold not getting the respect. I saw a ranking of ILB last week that had Earnest Jones at number 27. Guess who they had at number 10ish? Dodson. Yes, the guy we cut to make way for Jones. These national “experts” are a joke. The Seahawks never get respect. Over the past 5 or six years the preseason expected win total of the hawks have consistently underestimated their win total for that year. The underestimate has been by as much as 3.5 wins and an average of 2 wins under the season performance for a given year. Bill Alvstad of the Seahawks Paybook Podcast says a top 5 defense in the NFL averages 11.5 wins. Absent a few major injuries, given the Hawks easy schedule, they are a top 5-7 defense and winning 12 games this year, and maybe as much as 14. Darnold was picked to QB this year. DK was slated to be elsewhere this year. He was not a fit for Kubiak. OTAs Tuesday! Have a great holiday weekend!
The Southern Alaska viewpoint lives on. Even in the age of the internet.
Yep. Wvery QB is better with time to throw
Two quick comments about Sam I am. One Sam was stuck on teams that sucked Jets 18-20, Carolina 21-22. Sam then went to two good teams. SF 2023 then Minn 2024. The lasrt part of the seaon injuries and some flaws on the offensive line surfaced in Minn. So what did Minn do during the offseason. from CBS:
The Minnesota Vikings have made significant changes to their offensive line for the 2025 season, particularly on the interior. They've signed veteran center Ryan Kelly and right guard Will Fries, who have experience together from their time in Indianapolis. Additionally, they drafted Donovan Jackson in the first round, according to CBS News.
So was Sam playing above his paygrade with a less than stellar offensive line that McVay and Detroit schemed better than Minn did end of season. They also had interior line injuries. If the media is going to thrash Sam I am then they ought to deal with all attributing factors. He may be playing with a better offensive line this year and a better running game. Interesting possiblities. Nothing counts until you have played the games so comparing Sam in SF or Minn to the Jets and Minn (and now Seattle) is like comparing McDonalds to Daniels Steakhouse in Seatle. Perhaps Seattle and Sam I am will have the last laugh.
I saw a page today that was pretty shocking. Trevor Lawrence and Daniel Jones have nearly identical stats thru their careers so far. And they’ve both earned major new contracts and Lawrence at least is ranked above Darnold. Man talk about running on fumes, Lawrence is still getting credit for having been a can’t miss QB out of high school. Has never earned it in the NFL though
In fairness to Lawrence, his HCs have Urban Meyer and Doug Peterson. Team ownership is an issue in Jacksonville too.
Yes and it does raise the question for #1 picks: how much of the many failures we’ve witnessed is due to the dysfunctional team performance/environment required to “earn” the #1 pick.
It’s a conundrum. I’ve come to believe that unless a top 3-5 draft team can land a QB who they see as Pro Bowler, they’re better off drafting a tackle or EDGE—assuming availability. There’s no way that Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson should have been top 5 picks. (I can honestly say this isn’t hindsight on my part, not after I heard Randy Mueller’s assessment of both. He had Richardson as Day 3 and believed that many teams wouldn’t have Young on their board.)
So many questionable choices pollute the data. Like Cam Ward this year who may have been 5th-7th QB taken last year. GM’s rolling the dice make the data almost unreadable. But I’m with you, if a guy’s not a slam dunk, don’t take him
Although most people would say Lawrence was as slam-dunk as Andrew Luck had been. Who BTW got drafted into a pretty good team to be picking #1…
So I guess this year #1 should have been Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter, prob the only two guys who would be top 10 in various draft years (not just in the weak 2025 class)
The national media knows we no longer have Geno or DK or Tyler. They don’t know or value any other players on the team. They downgrade Kubiak because he’s twice been attached to head coaches who lost their job after his first season as OC.
Fine.
Darnold will or won’t. We’ll find out together. With an incredibly young offensive line it could get dicey early.
We have to trust the process. The core of the team and coaching staff has to be together for a few seasons. Even if this one goes south.
This reminds me of the Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl winner in the 2000-01 season. They dominated on defense and won with Trent Fricken Dilfer at QB. Dilfer couldn’t have been rated much higher than Darnold is now by the “experts”. If Darnold can manage the games without giving the ball away, and the MM defense progresses, this is a potential Super Bowl team.
Yes, I watched the playoff game last year, and Darnold was just terrible. Can’t sugar coat it. But if he learned from his mistakes…
I think we saw peak-Geno, and it wasn’t going to take us to the promised land. Those red zone picks were ripping my heart out of my chest.
BTW, I still have affection for Trent for playing for us the Sunday after his son died. He wasn’t a hall of famer, but I’ll never forget him for that.
And no one’s missing Russell Wilson. His ability to play QB simply fell off a cliff.
A running game and mobility was a pre-requisite of his playing style. Age slows us all down. Some QBs who are pure pocket passers can reduce the incline of the fall. Russ was never a pocket QB and the incline was a steep cliff indeed.
Russell’s knee nearly getting torn up while under the “protection” of Bradley Sowell and J’Marcus Webb didn’t help. That he didn’t miss time is tribute to RW, but his mobility and speed were never the same.
Having lived through the Geno Smith experiment, I'm completely content to live with the Sam Darnold era, especially after seeing what coach Mac is building. In Seattle, it's never been about 1 player, Wilson felt different, but it was always about the D keeping us in the game and knowing or hoping that Russ would finish it, kinda feeling the same way about this upcoming season.
I agree with your article completely. The national press doesn’t give us the respect we deserve.Im guessing in the last 15 years we have the 5th or 6th best winning record in the NFL. (Some body help me here) MM led us to a 10 & 7 record in his first year. We've had one of the best drafts in the league over the last few years. Now they are predicting us not to win over 7 games this season. How many times in the past 10 years have we not won over 9 games. I think we made a great decision hiring MM. Let’s ride this out and show the rest of the league we deserve to be a top 10 team agin. This should be a fun year with all the new players and watching the 2nd & 3rd year players Mature! Go Seattle!!!
I shared this the other day but it seems relevant...
https://www.sportsinfosolutions.com/2020/12/01/a-primer-on-total-points/
https://www.sisdatahub.com/leaderboards/QB
Sam Darnold comes out pretty good...I know it's just 'one stat' but I like EPA and this is a takeoff of that logic.
Hoping we get the new updated version of Sam Darnold one that can competently mange our team, I think he's got what it takes, we give him half a chance and provide some line upgrades and we'll see. As I re-watch last season it is so obvious we need to solve the O-line before we can even evaluate the offense or anyone in it. And I know I've seen it written already, but if we have a league average O-line we are going to be vastly improved. Let's hope between coaching and play-calling and injection of new talent we get this thing corrected. I for one am very excited about the potential of this new regime. I have been skeptical and still have doubts about some of the draft selections, but I see potential in all of them, which is great (and not typical from my perspective). I wanna see these guys get after it, I can't wait to watch them in practice. Let's go!!!
It’s reasonable to have doubts on “some” of the draft picks. We had 11. So if we only get 8 or 9 quality players, look out NFL! ;)
The Seahawks are not getting much love anywhere. Team, players, coaches. I’m totally fine with all of it. Play the games and we’ll see. I think Sam can function just fine in this offense as long as he just stays within himself and doesn’t try to do too much. Protect the football. There are times when he doesn’t trust his eyes right away and the ball comes out late as a result. Hopefully Kubiak can work with him on that.
I'm sorry, but all I could think of when you came to the end was, "Damn, Geno was lots better than that." I don't expect anyone to be more accurate than Geno, but if Sam can keep his TD/INT ratio respectable and his completion percentage improves to 67% or better. I mean, why even start him, or at least why not let Drew Lock, Jalen Milroe, and Sam compete for the starting job?
I saw a lot of bad throws and forced throws to Jefferson when there was a wide open receiver in Darnolds footage.
Part of the reason Genos' completion ratio was so high was because he took way too many sacks and made too many ultra-safe dump-off passes.
Agreed. Thanks Ray.
I loved Geno when he was here. But he preferred to be with Pete, and I think Kubiak preferred Darnold. Hopefully Kubiak’s faith in Darnold turns out to be warranted.
Yea, when I sober up I see reality, thanks Danno.
I don’t take NFL player rankings seriously. QBs play different schedules with different degrees of difficulty; some play mostly indoors, others play mostly outdoors; they play under different weather conditions; the health and quality of the rest of the team vary—that’s what comes to mind without giving it much thought. In short, once you regress the differences, there’s little to compare. To me, this is a silliness that comes with justifying 365/24/7 coverage of a sport.
Rankings can be useful under certain circumstances. For example, that JSN is ninth in overall catches but doesn’t come close to ninth in any other receiving category makes me wonder about the his degree of impact. Or, to put it positively, it tells me that he has room to develop. On the other hand, it doesn’t say much at all how about how good he is relative to another receiver.
Agree 100% with this is just to fill the news cycle BS.
Darnold did look good in the lousy weather in that game in Seattle last year. That bodes well.
I watched over 8 minutes of the short yardage throws and I saw more drops or receivers slipping than bad throws. I thought his film looked great.
I believe Kubiak wanted Darnold over Geno. He knew him fairly well. So I have a good feeling he is not going to be a Justin Fields or a washed up Russell Wilson
It’s not just Sam Darnold not getting the respect. I saw a ranking of ILB last week that had Earnest Jones at number 27. Guess who they had at number 10ish? Dodson. Yes, the guy we cut to make way for Jones. These national “experts” are a joke. The Seahawks never get respect. Over the past 5 or six years the preseason expected win total of the hawks have consistently underestimated their win total for that year. The underestimate has been by as much as 3.5 wins and an average of 2 wins under the season performance for a given year. Bill Alvstad of the Seahawks Paybook Podcast says a top 5 defense in the NFL averages 11.5 wins. Absent a few major injuries, given the Hawks easy schedule, they are a top 5-7 defense and winning 12 games this year, and maybe as much as 14. Darnold was picked to QB this year. DK was slated to be elsewhere this year. He was not a fit for Kubiak. OTAs Tuesday! Have a great holiday weekend!