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What does it really mean?
Talking abou thet Pro Football Focus rating of NFL quarterbacks that just came out.
I don’t subscribe to PFF which is a subscription service.
But nonetheless, just just for conversation sake, let’s look how Darnold faired in their QB rankings? Hat-tip to NJ.com’s Darryl Slater, who has access to PFF, and wrote an article on the QB rankings.
According to Slater, PFF had Darnold ranked 31st in the NFL. They ranked 34 quarterbacks.
That is a little unfair when you consider some of the people in front him.
The most head-scratching ranking in front of him is Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow at 26. Perhaps Burrow will be better than Darnold in time. None of us know that. But Burrow has not suited up for one NFL game yet, so how can he be ahead of Darnold, who has played two seasons?
One of the reasons it’s so hard to scout college quarterbacks, and project them to the NFL, is that you don’t know if they will be able to function against complex NFL defenses, the likes they have never seen before. Why do you think there are so many misses with first round quarterbacks? Look at the 2015 draft, where Jameis Winston went to Tampa Bay first overall, and then Marcus Mariota went to Tennessee second overall. Neither player is still with those teams.
So to rank Burrow ahead of Darnold is absurd. Nobody has any idea how Burrow will do on the NFL level.
Daniel Jones is at 23. Is he better than Darnold? Hard to make that argument right now. Jones is eight spots ahead of Darnold? How do you come up with that? Jones was a turnover machine last year.
Look, I’m no special-pleaders for Darnold, but I don’t buy that guys like Burrow, Jones and Lock are better than Darnold.
Like I said, Burrow could eventually be better. He has a lot of talent, but he hasn’t done it yet on the NFL level.
There is no question Darnold needs to take his game to the next level. Nobody is debating that. He needs to improve at reading defenses, going through his progressions and manipulating defensive backs with his eyes. He must stop locking on his first-read and forcing passes there to his first-read.
But with what looks like a better supporting cast this year, and going into his second season in Adam Gase’s system, he should take a positive step forward.
But even though he has some things to work on, but I don’t see him as behind guys like Jones, Burrow and Lock right now.
June 8, 2020
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