I think Sam Darnold has lost a lot of money in the last 10 days. He came up awfully small in the season-ending loss at Detroit, and he was even worse against the Rams.
Too many missed throws in key situations, and too many plays where he was too slow to get rid of the ball. He took 9 sacks, and most could have been avoided. As well as he’s played all year, Darnold last night looked a lot like the guy the Jets gave up on.
Darnold completed 68 percent of his passes in first 16 games. These last two, he’s been down at 53 percent. Among quarterbacks who started at least half the season, only one completed fewer than 60 percent of his passes (Anthony Richardson).
Darnold in the first 17 weeks of the season compiled a passer rating of 106.4. That’s higher than all but four quarterbacks. But Darnold in the last two weeks has had a passer rating of only 66.4. That’s well below the likes of Daniel Jones, Will Levis and Gardner Minshew.
| PASSER RATING | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Pct | Yds/G | TD | Int | Rate |
| Lamar Jackson, Balt. | 17 | 66.7% | 245.4 | 41 | 4 | 119.6 |
| Jared Goff, Det. | 17 | 72.4% | 272.3 | 37 | 12 | 111.8 |
| Joe Burrow, Cin. | 17 | 70.6% | 289.3 | 43 | 9 | 108.5 |
| Baker Mayfield, T.B. | 17 | 71.4% | 264.7 | 41 | 16 | 106.8 |
| Darnold (G 1-16), Min. | 16 | 68.1% | 259.6 | 35 | 12 | 106.4 |
| Jalen Hurts, Phil. | 15 | 68.7% | 193.5 | 18 | 5 | 103.7 |
| Justin Herbert, LAC | 17 | 65.9% | 227.6 | 23 | 3 | 101.7 |
| Josh Allen, Buff. | 17 | 63.6% | 219.5 | 28 | 6 | 101.4 |
| Tua Tagovailoa, Mia. | 11 | 72.9% | 260.6 | 19 | 7 | 101.4 |
| Derek Carr, N.O. | 10 | 67.7% | 214.5 | 15 | 5 | 101.0 |
| Jayden Daniels, Was. | 17 | 69.0% | 209.9 | 25 | 9 | 100.1 |
| Jordan Love, G.B. | 15 | 63.1% | 225.9 | 25 | 11 | 96.7 |
| Brock Purdy, S.F. | 15 | 65.9% | 257.6 | 20 | 12 | 96.1 |
| Russell Wilson, Pitt. | 11 | 63.7% | 225.6 | 16 | 5 | 95.6 |
| Matthew Stafford, LAR | 16 | 65.8% | 235.1 | 20 | 8 | 93.7 |
| Kyler Murray, Ari. | 17 | 68.8% | 226.5 | 21 | 11 | 93.5 |
| Patrick Mahomes, K.C. | 16 | 67.5% | 245.5 | 26 | 11 | 93.5 |
| Bo Nix, Den. | 17 | 66.3% | 222.1 | 29 | 12 | 93.3 |
| Geno Smith, Sea. | 17 | 70.4% | 254.1 | 21 | 15 | 93.2 |
| Aaron Rodgers, NYJ | 17 | 63.0% | 229.2 | 28 | 11 | 90.5 |
| Drake Maye, N.E. | 12 | 67.0% | 187.8 | 15 | 10 | 88.9 |
| Kirk Cousins, Atl. | 14 | 66.9% | 250.6 | 18 | 16 | 88.6 |
| Gardner Minshew, L.V. | 9 | 69.1% | 206.6 | 9 | 7 | 88.5 |
| Caleb Williams, Chi. | 17 | 62.5% | 208.3 | 20 | 6 | 87.8 |
| C.J. Stroud, Hou. | 17 | 63.2% | 219.2 | 20 | 12 | 87.0 |
| Trevor Lawrence, Jac. | 10 | 60.6% | 204.5 | 11 | 7 | 85.2 |
| Bryce Young, Car. | 12 | 60.8% | 195.8 | 15 | 9 | 82.2 |
| Will Levis, Ten. | 12 | 63.1% | 174.3 | 13 | 12 | 81.4 |
| Daniel Jones, NYG | 10 | 63.3% | 207.0 | 8 | 7 | 79.4 |
| Darnold (G 17-18), Min. | 2 | 53.1% | 205.5 | 1 | 1 | 66.4 |
| Anthony Richardson, Ind. | 11 | 47.7% | 164.9 | 8 | 12 | 61.6 |
While this is only two games, I would think they’re going to scare off any team from throwing serious money at him. If the Giants, Steelers, Raiders or Titans were thinking about pursuing Darnold earlier, I think that’s gone now. And the Vikings, I would think, are probably going to be more inclined to pivot to J.J. McCarthy.
All teams thinking about Darnold, I would think, will be concerned that Kevin O’Connell made him look better than he actually is, helped along by the likes of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.
After these two meltdown games, I think teams are more likely to view Darnold as either a bridge quarterback or an option to come in and compete. That’s a big drop for a guy who two weeks ago was being sized up for the franchise tag.
—Ian Allan