Maybe, just maybe they are ranking Darnold lower because he only ever did what he did last year, once in his career and one can easily make the case he did so as a result of the OC and system he landed in.
Likewise, you could make the case that Smith performed at a borderline top 10 level for 2 years before finishing at an average place in his final year while in one of the worse led offenses in the league.
Smith in the Vikings last year woukd have been better than he was in Seattle and likely better than Darnold was in that system because metrics like on target throws, adjusted completion percentage and accuracy under pressure go a but deeper at refkecting the true ability of a qb than TDs do.
On the flip, Darnold would likely have looked a lot like he did before he got to Minny last year. Why? Because when he had anything approaching poor OC leadership helping him, he was hot garbage.
Geno with poor OC leadership? Pushing top 10 and top 15 ish over 3 years.
And now Geno has Chip Kelly and weapons. Its not a stretch.
But Darnold coukd build on what he did last year and push top 10 and Geno could regress and be no better than he was here despite undeniably having a better OC.
We
Shall
See.
Gonna be fun to watch.
And then there's Russ. So many storylines to track...