Kyle Shanahan has had some success with lightly regarded quarterbacks. Jimmy Garoppolo was pretty good when healthy for him, and Brock Purdy got the team to the NFC Championship game last year. That's caused some excitement about free agent addition Sam Darnold.
It's become clear through two preseason games that Darnold is going to be Purdy's backup, and with Purdy probably not 100 percent while working his way back from elbow surgery, Darnold might need to start at some point. If so, the preseason has been pretty promising.
Darnold was 5 of 8 for 84 yards in his exhibition debut, with one pretty sweet downfield completion from his own end zone. He then replaced Purdy after one series last night and completed 11 of 14 for 109 yards, with a touchdown and an interception, while playing about a half. The interception hit his receiver in the hands and popped up in the air; not a bad throw. He's going to be the No. 2. Trey Lance? Either he's the No. 3 or he's traded, though I'm not sure what kind of value he could bring. Very little, based on what he's shown/not shown to this point.
Darnold's NFL resume thus far is not impressive, of course. In five years while toiling for the Jets and Panthers, he's managed to compile both the lowest passer rating and the lowest completion percentage among all NFL starters (minimum 40 starts). Only two quarterbacks in that group have thrown for fewer yards, and only one has thrown fewer touchdowns, and only four have thrown more interceptions.
Table (sorted by passer rating) compiled using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com.
| QUARTERBACK STATS, 2018-2022 (MINIMUM 40 STARTS) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Cmp% | Rate | Yds | TD | Int |
| Patrick Mahomes | 79 | 66.4 | 106.0 | 23957 | 192 | 48 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 81 | 65.6 | 103.2 | 20553 | 162 | 27 |
| Deshaun Watson | 53 | 67.6 | 102.2 | 13942 | 92 | 33 |
| Russell Wilson | 77 | 65.3 | 101.9 | 18407 | 147 | 42 |
| Kirk Cousins | 80 | 67.8 | 100.9 | 20934 | 153 | 50 |
| Joe Burrow | 42 | 68.2 | 100.4 | 11774 | 82 | 31 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo | 50 | 67.7 | 99.6 | 12039 | 75 | 37 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 66 | 66.5 | 99.4 | 14810 | 106 | 42 |
| Dak Prescott | 65 | 67.1 | 98.8 | 17952 | 121 | 48 |
| Lamar Jackson | 61 | 63.7 | 96.7 | 12209 | 101 | 38 |
| Philip Rivers | 48 | 67.4 | 96.6 | 13092 | 79 | 43 |
| Matthew Stafford | 66 | 66.0 | 96.6 | 17333 | 117 | 51 |
| Justin Herbert | 49 | 66.9 | 96.2 | 14089 | 94 | 35 |
| Tom Brady | 82 | 65.5 | 96.1 | 23055 | 161 | 52 |
| Derek Carr | 80 | 67.2 | 95.2 | 20532 | 114 | 55 |
| Matt Ryan | 76 | 66.9 | 94.1 | 20996 | 121 | 57 |
| Jared Goff | 78 | 65.3 | 93.6 | 20961 | 122 | 56 |
| Kyler Murray | 57 | 66.8 | 92.5 | 13848 | 84 | 41 |
| Josh Allen | 76 | 62.5 | 92.2 | 18397 | 138 | 60 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 49 | 65.4 | 91.7 | 13023 | 89 | 37 |
| Carson Wentz | 63 | 63.1 | 89.5 | 15051 | 102 | 45 |
| Mitchell Trubisky | 43 | 65.3 | 88.4 | 9711 | 61 | 36 |
| Daniel Jones | 53 | 64.0 | 86.5 | 11603 | 60 | 34 |
| Baker Mayfield | 69 | 61.4 | 86.5 | 16288 | 102 | 64 |
| Andy Dalton | 53 | 62.9 | 85.5 | 12616 | 77 | 51 |
| Sam Darnold | 55 | 59.7 | 78.2 | 11767 | 61 | 55 |
Some of the other quarterbacks in Darnold's general range include Carson Wentz, Mayfield, Mitchell Trubisky and Daniel Jones. With Wentz and Trubisky, some made the mistake of thinking they'd be viable starters the last couple of years. With Mayfield, perhaps some around Tampa Bay are in the process of making the mistake this year.
Jones just got a big new contract, coming off his best season with the Giants. In that case, there's the fact that head coach Brian Daboll was instrumental in developing another of those 2018 quarterbacks, Josh Allen, and it seems he might be doing the same thing with Jones.
Earlier in the offseason, I didn't think there was much to support the idea of Darnold being viable. But I'm changing my opinion; perhaps working with Shanahan has enabled Darnold to get past his earlier struggles. If Purdy needs to miss time, the offense might be just fine.
--Andy Richardson