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Q)How would you assess Darnold’s performance this season?
Douglas: Yeah Sam, talk about toughness. And talk about adversity. Not many guys faced more adversity then Sam, as far as, dealing with the mono and then some rough patches during the year but, I think the respect that Sam has earned, from everyone in this building, especially the locker room, for his ability to handle adversity, to come back, play really good football, to watch him grow throughout the year, to watch him grow from year one to year two, just with everything, with decision making, with leadership. It was really impressive to see.
Leberfeld: No question Darnold did a great job of dealing with adversity this year, coming back from mono and dealing with some injuries. His toughness is unquestioned. However, the “decision making” needs to improve. He threw a pick in Buffalo where he hit a Bills defender in the back of his helmet because the receiver was so tightly covered (should not have thrown it there). He also had another bad decision turn into pick, but was overturned by a Bills penalty that had nothing to do with the throw, the decision or the pick, so he dodged a bullet. Against Pittsburgh, he threw two post routes down the deep middle into heavy coverage, and he is lucky neither was picked (Joe Haden dropped one of them).
Terrific prospect, great arm, very tough – needs to improve his decision-making, which I’m sure he will. Let’s not forget, he’s still only 22.
Q)What is your confidence level that Adam Gase can bring out the best in Sam Darnold?
Douglas: I’ve seen that everyday and just the job that he did with this team, this year, again, you guys have been around a long-time you know not many 1-7 teams finish 6-2 down the stretch. I can’t speak to how a great job Adam and his staff did and I really think that Sam and Adam formed a really strong relationship of open and honest conversation and I think you saw that kind of blossom through the end of the year.
Leberfeld: As I said before, it’s a foolish narrative, in my opinion, that Darnold somehow regressed under Gase. That is dumb. There are a lot of things Gase needs to improve on as a coach, like overseeing the whole team better (not just the offense) and not worrying so much about what is written about him, but coaching quarterbacks isn’t one of them. When Darnold made some bad throws this year, it was often on the quarterback, not the coach. See above. Once the ball is snapped, Gase can’t read defenses for the quarterback.
Gase can develop Darnold fine. It’s up to the QB to go through his progressions better and not lock on his primary read so often.
Gase is very qualified to develop Darnold. It’s other parts of the job he needs to get better at.
January 3, 2020
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