Sam Darnold is only a reasonable option bevause he is cheaper and hedges against not being able to build a better team overall over the next 2 years if your qb isnt top 10 and getting paid as such.
By every metric that measure pure accuracy, being able to perform under pressure, Darnold isnt as good as Geno. Folks can point to geno's TDs last year and say - he cant handle pressure and makes mistakes when it comes. Especially in the redzone. That analysis completely ignores the OC and gives the guy a pass when the NFL literally said 'no thanks'to him in 2025 and ushered him back to college. It also ignores geno going 33 v 2 in the redzone prior to Grubb but still with an OC that cant get a job as such in the NFL anymore. Need more convincing? The Raiders had the option to grab Darnold. Tom Brady, who by all accounts has plenty of opinion and say in the shaping of the franchise and knows QBs, chose instead to go with Geno and surrender draft capital to do it.
Darnold put up comperable stats with a run game that ranked 9 spots better, a better O line and a far superior play caller. In other words, he was given tools that SHOULD have seen him perform FAR superior than what our last QB did and he didnt. The fact that we are hoping its a lateral move is all you need to know about the situation. And more telling, the fact that Minny was tbought to be ready to annoint JJ qb1 with Darnold moving on and yet they now seem more inclined to bring ANOTHER qb to play ahead of him says that they just werent high on Sam. Why?
Maybe this is the reason?
FF to about 4 minutes to understand his shortcomings. Skip to around 6:45 to understand the difference between Geno and Darnold.
And note that this is a video praising the move.
I am hoping the dude 1., with an offense that wont rely on him to do even close to what he had to do in Minny or what Geno was asked to here, and 2. With a philosophy that puts defense first, floursihes and can be a better Dave Kreig in helpinh this team win. Or shoot, just be a better Russell Wilson circa 2013 at reading defense and just let the run game and D be the focus of the team.
If the O line is anywhere near as bad as last year, we dont sniff 9 wins with Darnold.
What a load of cobblers.