Darnold on the block?

[Maniac]

Originally Posted by Chaka

Let me add a few other guys that will help make my point

The hated John Elway:
Year 2: 2598 passing yards, 18 TDs, 15 INTs
Year 3: 3,891 passing yards, 22 TDs, 23 INTs

Troy Aikman
Year 2: 2,579 passing yards, 11 TDs, 18 INTs
Year 3: 2,754 passing yards, 11 TDs, 10 INTs

Steve Young
Year 2: 2,282 passing yards, 8 TDs, 13 INTs (Tampa Bay)
Year 3: 570 passing yards, 10 TDs, 0 INTs (traded to SF, behind Montana)

In fact, the more I look the more it seems to be kind of the norm for a QB to suffer through some adversity in his first few years before finally emerging as a legit star.

Elways numbers were good in his 3rd year. almost 4000 yards and 22 TD's, just high INT's. They also had a record of 12-2 and 11-5 in his 2nd and 3rd years.

Aikman is a poor choice. He never was a big stats QB. He had Emmitt. He only had one season where he threw for over 20 TD's.

Young sitting behind Montana is also a poor example. He also only played in 5 games his first year in Tampa. His second year in Tampa he also ran for 425 yards and 5 TD's in addition to his passing. After that he sat behind Montana and played in spot duty.

One thing in Darnold's favor though to be fair is that he only played in 13 games in each of his first two years.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Maniac

Elways numbers were good in his 3rd year. almost 4000 yards and 22 TD's, just high INT's. They also had a record of 12-2 and 11-5 in his 2nd and 3rd years..

True, Elway’s number weren’t too bad, but a mediocre QBR of 70.2 if you believe it that sort of stuff. Completion rate of only 54% too. Led the league in attempts also, so put in context maybe the TD and yardage numbers aren’t all that great. Darnold’s would have been as good or better last year if extrapolated out to 16 games.

Originally Posted by Maniac

Aikman is a poor choice. He never was a big stats QB. He had Emmitt. He only had one season where he threw for over 20 TD's. .

He’s a hall of fame QB, and the fact that he had Emmitt is kind of my point – Darnold doesn’t have an Emmitt and is left to do everything himself.

Originally Posted by Maniac

Young sitting behind Montana is also a poor example. He also only played in 5 games his first year in Tampa. His second year in Tampa he also ran for 425 yards and 5 TD's in addition to his passing. After that he sat behind Montana and played in spot duty..

I’ll agree Young isn’t necessarily a perfect fit to my analysis, but I added him more as an example of how changing organizations can vastly improve a player’s performance.