Don’t know yet

I’m going to ask an important question I don’t have an answer for yet . . .

. . . but intend to find out.

What is that question?

Is Sam Darnold a good leader?

This is a question that really hasn’t been addressed much over his first two years with the team.

I want to make something perfectly clear, I’m not casting aspersions on Darnold’s leadership. I’m admitting that I haven’t heard anything either way, good or bad, on his leadership.

And being around the team as a beat reporter, at myriad practices and locker room media sessions, I still am having a hard time coming to a conclusion on this one.

This is so important at the quarterback position, which Joe Douglas often describes at the “most important position in all of sports.”

Not only do you need to have the skill set to play the position, but you also need to have top-shelf leadership. If you quarterback is a poor leader, that is a bad thing for a football operation.

Once again, just to be clear, I’m not saying Darnold is a poor leader. I just don’t know what kind of leader he is yet.

And I intend over the next few months to try to do a deep dive on this one.

I do think Darnold needs to be cut a little slack on the leadership front in one regard, no matter how you view him as a leader.

It’s hard for a quarterback to be a great leader, when they are trying to get comfortable in a new offense, and Darnold had to learn two different systems in his first two years.

These NFL offenses are like Rube Goldberg Machines, very complicated and involved. It’s far from ideal for a young QB to have two different offensive systems in his first two years. These playbooks are as thick as “War and Peace.”

Let’s let “The QB Whisper” Bruce Arians give you some insight on how difficult it is to play NFL QB.

“Not only does QB need to know the precise contours of each play, but he needs to know the formation of each play, the personnel combination for each play, what defensive formations he’s likely to see for each play,” Arians wrote. “Then he needs to think about what he would like to change to if the defense lines up in a formation we’re not expecting. If that changes to a pass, he needs to know the progressions for the new pass play. If it changes to a run, he needs to know the proper call based on what he views as the most vulnerable point of that defensive alignment that we weren’t anticipating in the first place. No, it ain’t easy being an NFL QB.”

So it was probably really hard for Darnold to be a big-time leader of men his first two years, with his head spinning as a young QB, trying to figure out two massive playbooks, first Jeremy Bates’, and now Adam Gase’s.

My point here is I’m really not sure what kind of leader Sam Darnold is yet.

Will he organize a work out in an open state like Florida or Texas for some of his passing game weapons, like Breshad Perriman, like Buffalo’s Josh Allen just did in Florida. We will see. That would be a good example of leadership.

But I promise y’all that I will try to get to the bottom of this over the next few months.

Once again, to be clear, I’m not saying he’s a bad leader. I just don’t know.

May 29, 2020

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