Sam Darnold Is Weird

[NoGain]

What? He's a humble leader. Totally locked in. How in the world is it hard to like Sam fricken Darnold? And what does a personality that somehow makes you not sure if you like him have to do with how he plays football?
Love dot net so much. Something strange and new every single day.
Also, let's be real, Quarterbacks are strange cats, always have been. MANY of them.

I never said I didn't like him.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

I know, I'm just messing with you. He's just a little awkward, but he's one hell of a good dude. And you hear that from every team that he's played for. I'm a strange dude, so that's probably one of the many reasons I like the guy.

 

[Wsumatt1982]

You were looking for and got this

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Jamiroquai for the win.

 

[NoGain]

I think a ballad needs to be written about Sam.

 

[Ostatehawk]

Jamiroquai for the win.

I did not have a Jamiroquai reference on my bingo card today. Well done!

 

[Wsumatt1982]

I did not have a Jamiroquai reference on my bingo card today. Well done!

Man that's virtual Insanity.

 

[glenwo2]

Man that's virtual Insanity.

Would you also like some Canned Heat, good sir?

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Nicely done, boys, nicely done.

 

[AROS]

Weird isn’t the word I would choose for Sam, personally.

 

[pmedic920]

I fully understand that the OP was done tongue in cheek, but it did bring to my mind how absolutely pathetic we can be as fans.

Everything is going great, yet we simply can’t help ourselves.

We must complain about something.

 

[NoGain]

Weird isn’t the word I would choose for Sam, personally.

I meant it in the *light* sense of the word, pretty much affectionately so. When I mentioned those other QB's in the post (could have named more), they all had this easily recognizable alpha quality to them in each their own way. By weird I meant that Sam doesn't have that about him. That's why I posed him as a tortoise in the race passing hares and not even knowing it. He just keeps on humbly grinding away.

 

[StaffAmerica74]

I love it. No drama. Just putting up stats to do his talking.

 

[glenwo2]

Weird isn’t the word I would choose for Sam, personally.

I'd call him Black.


Marshawn Lynch thinks so, too.

 

[bileever]

Many QBs who experienced setbacks earlier in their careers had some humility that helped them to succeed.

I think of Kurt Warner (undrafted and working in a supermarket), Drew Brees (kicked to the curb after the Chargers drafted Philip Rivers), Jim Plunkett (released by the 49ers and becoming a backup on the Raiders) and Johnny Unitas (worked construction and played safety and punter for a semi-pro team for $6 a game before trying out for the Colts), to name a few.

 

[Jerhawk]

I like the guy. He seems down to Earth and someone easy to root for.

 

[NoGain]

I like the guy. He seems down to Earth and someone easy to root for.

Yeah. Pretty much the same for me. Just kind of a humble low key guy, rather than a guy/QB who gives off those real alpha vibes.

 

[chris98251]

Besides he is still waiting for the Geno carpet to be reomved from the locker room all of you laid out. I remember very very few of us were all in on Darnold day one, it was a lot of WTF a swap of the same talent but a few years younger. He was a failure everywhere he went and it was Minnys system, as soon as he had adversity he folded. I remember a lot of them. I was perplexed as well thinking we would go after a Drafted guy again that was almost ready and keep Geno.

So if he has treperdations about showing who he is I can understand, he is winning everyone over, but this is Seattle and there is a instant pitchfork App on Every Fans phone and a rope as well.

He is keeping his head down, doing his job, and fans be damed I am sure since they have turned on him everywhere he has been.

 

[Shaggy]

I mean, what a weird dude. Almost all the memorable QB's I've seen during my arse wipe of an insignificant life stood out to me personality-wise in some marked way, their aura, or whatever you want to call it. Joe Montana's self-assured, almost cocky grin like "I'm going to get you, it's just a matter of time"; or Tom Brady's "I'm smarter than you and work harder than you and I will prevail over you" thing; or Patrick Mahomes's "just give me the ball and some time on the clock and I'll find a way"' or Marino's "I'm going to show you how this position can be played like no other". All leaders in each their own brazen kind of way.

And then I come to Darnold for such considerations, and I'm stumped. Does he have a personality? A recognizable aura? Something that just sticks out and slaps you in the face with it? He's like the tortoise in the race that doesn't even know when he's passing hares. Just da-deet-da-doo-da-deet-da-doo put my left foot in front of the other. It's almost like he needs his coaches and teammates to stop him and tell him he's doing good, or he'll just keep on humbly plodding along saying to himself I must get better, I must get better, I must get better...

I don't quite know what to make of this guy. He's a weird QB. A weird dude. I don't quite know how to embrace him. Yet.

I think all that went out the window when he became a journeyman QB. He's just trying to get by and doesn't want to come off as anything.

 

[bileever]

I would say that Sam Darnold is the anti-Russ. Team first, calls no attention to himself. Beloved by his teammates. More interested in the opportunity vs. the money. He would have given the Vikings a hometown discount if they were interested.

He took the $33.5 million/year deal with the Seahawks very quickly while there were rumors that the Giants and Steelers were also interested. For the record, the deal he signed with the Seahawks was well below the projected contracts that both PFF ($41 million per year) and Sportrac ($40.1 million per year) predicted he would get. Had he waited, and played the teams off each other, he could have maximized his value, but he chose a spot he wanted to go to, rather than getting as much as he could.