I like Dart but he is hot or cold. Can be great one game, miss everything the next.
But Darnold on this team would be a flaming disaster.
Geno was not perfect, almost the league leader in interceptions, but under pressure he produced more than he failed. Darnold is good when things are steady, but he falls apart easily and he wilts under pressure.
Our OL was horrific, you had to expect jailbreaks, but when the line held....Geno hit home runs. When the line failed (often), Geno often escaped and found his guy anyway. Whether we use Howell or Darnold, in the rare moments our line protects well - those guys are likely going to expect failure and miss the opportunity.
That doesn't even count the games that Darnold literally just falls apart (see Viking playoff game for example, and that was WITH a good OL and WITH one of the best WR corps in the NFL).
We have an OC that can't keep a job, an OMG at QB, and what looks like no viable starting WR outside of JSN. Count in our starting RB who makes Shaun Alexander look like a bruising RB by comparison, and things don't look great. But then again, few, myself included, thought Geno would be as good as he was (except Carroll obviously).