r/Seahawks • u/Responsible_Meet_605 • 4h ago
Discussion CALM DOWN
The overreactions to Darnold have been ridiculous. I’m seeing people call him one of the worst QBs in football, claim he’s reverted to his Jets days, and even suggest benching him for Drew Lock.
I’m not excusing the turnovers. They’ve been terrible, and Darnold absolutely needs to be better. But I think we’re forgetting what made this offense so successful last year.
1. Darnold wasn’t carried by our defense.
Last year we finished 3rd in scoring at 28.4 PPG, 8th in total offense, and 2nd in net yards per pass attempt, despite finishing 25th in rushing yards per carry. (For all the people that say he needs a running game). We didn’t just have an elite defense. We had one of the best offenses in football, and Darnold was a huge reason why.
2. He’s a gunslinger. That’s who he’s always been.
Favre, Stafford, and Andrew Luck all had successful seasons with plenty of interceptions. I’m not comparing their careers, but aggressive quarterbacks are going to make mistakes. You want to eliminate the terrible decisions without taking away what makes them dangerous.
And let’s not forget, Darnold has led nine game-winning drives since 2024, the second most in the NFL over that span. There are probably 8-10 quarterbacks I’d trust to drive 80 yards downfield when everyone knows they have to throw and we are luck to have one of them.
3. I think we’ve overlooked how much Kubiak’s structure helped Darnold.
Kubiak understood his strengths and weaknesses. Traditional five to seven step drops from under center, defined two and three-man route combinations with heavy protection, gave Darnold structure and helped him play decisively. Under Fleury, we’re using seven-plus-man protection about half as often as we did under Kubiak. That’s a significant change, and I’d love to see more of those concepts incorporated into the offense. Also the 5-7 step dropbcks under center have all but disappeared.
Let’s be realistic: quickly progressing through multiple reads hasn’t always been his greatest strength. But when he gets into a rhythm, we’ve seen what he’s capable of.
4. Darnold hasn’t suddenly become a different quarterback.
He’s always had the arm talent, aggressiveness, and occasional questionable decisions. What changed was his environment. He went from some terrible situations early in his career to learning under Shanahan, O’Connell, and Kubiak.
He’s developed tremendously, but a few bad games don’t erase that progress or what he accomplished last season.
5. I’m optimistic about today.
I was encouraged to hear Fleury address the issues surrounding Darnold and the offense the other day. If his comments translate into actual adjustments on the field, I am optimistic
We’re 3–2, the same start we had last year before winning the Super Bowl. We’re coming off a narrow loss to one of the best teams in football, and there’s plenty of room for improvement.
I know Reddit is where fans come to vent, and I get the frustration. But calling for the reigning Super Bowl-winning quarterback to be benched after three starts is absurd.
Darnold needs to play better, but the coaching staff needs to help him. I’m expecting a much cleaner, more efficient offense today. Go Hawks.
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u/CharmingWheel328 "I'm just here so I won't get fined" 4h ago
Yeah, he's a guy with weaknesses you need to learn to cover, but which you can cover. Our offensive line play is not helping, and I think he may still have that injury nagging at him. But we'll see how he does tonight. He was able to clean up the turnovers before, I trust he'll do it again.
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u/easley45isgod 4h ago
Darnold has the 2nd longest time to throw in the entire league. It's over 3 seconds. The line isn't the problem. At least as far as pass pro goes. Zabel gave up 3 sacks last Sunday and had an uncharacteristically bad game. But otherwise, Sam has had plenty of time. He's just been indecisive and honestly, just bad.
I have faith in Sammy. GEQBUS will figure it out.
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u/RuckusVell04 3h ago
I do think the injury is still an issue. I think they rushed him back too soon vs. Washington.
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u/da_man4444 4h ago
Lotta squeamish people in this sub and fanbase have never seen truly god awful quarterback play and are crashing out after two close games. That's how spoiled we've been
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u/JaeTheOne 4h ago
fair, but our offense doing shitty things has lead to TO and ultimately points. Thats a very big problem. Giving your opponent a short field is an issue
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u/Anxious-Yak-9952 "We did not care" 4h ago
A lot of these folks are bandwagon fans, check out their comment history in this sub and they mostly started in the last year. Best is to ignore them.
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u/stickymeowmeow 4h ago
I still believe in Darnold.
But I can’t ignore how good Drew Lock looked. Against questionable teams, sure, but I think we were all surprised just how good he looked. And you have to admit you’re at least curious what Drew Lock would have looked like against Washington and the 9ers.
It’s nowhere near panic time. The team’s start is almost identical to their start last year which ended in a Super Bowl. Darnold didn’t look great through 5 games last year either but he figured it out.
It’s just hard not to wonder “what if.”
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u/Kian_Redleaf 4h ago
Haha “Calm down” ALWAYS works. Really, it does! Try it with your wife! 😂
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u/thatmarcelfaust 1h ago
People whining about how their team is doing on a subreddit and a relationship with the person you decided to spend the rest of your life with are totally the same.
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u/Slow-Club-4648 4h ago
“WOMEN RIGHT ?! Can’t live w them, can’t live without em, IMIRIGHT FELLAS?!” Yuck yuck yuck
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u/Skybandicoot109 4h ago
He hasn't been good but he's not at all the biggest reason things have gone the way they have the past few games
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u/Particular_Field_143 4h ago
Sports media is stupid. Darnold didn't lose the game, the entire offense lost the game.
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u/rip-droptire 4h ago
So many people forget that he sustained an injury like a month ago. A soft tissue one at that, which infamously can be played on but affect a player until they are fully healed regardless.
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u/Reddits_WS 4h ago
But isn’t this what the internet and all the related media is all about? Better than get mad, turn it off or give it the weight it deserves. The only opinions of value are inside the building at the vmac and they are also the only opinions that can move the needle. I dont think they care about what u/bootlickersportsguy has to say…
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u/ksozay 4h ago edited 4h ago
I think both "things" can be true.
- Sam is a good quarterback. When he's on, when he's on time, and playing with confidence - he's great.
- Sam gets into trouble when he's pressing. There are many reason why this happens, and not all are Sam's fault. But for Sam to be consistently great, he needs to optimize how he manages to stay within the construct of what brings him success - 1. Confidence in the play call. 2. Confidence in his read. 3. Commitment to his "plant and throw" on-time process. 4. Confidence in his ability to diagnose when a play is over and how best to minimize that impact.
- Fleury needs to help Sam acclimate to the game, early. Whether it's calling confidence building short routes or running up-tempo, it "FEELS" like Sam needs to build early confidence in order to get his mental focus on staying on time, in rhythm, and playing with feel. Instead of second guessing his read, his throwing lanes, his receivers being open.
- One thing that used to frustrate me about Russ - It never felt like he threw his receivers open. It was as if Russ needed a receiver to be open before he'd throw the ball. Similar with Sam, where he appears to double-check to make sure the receiver is actually open, before making the throw. I refer to this as the "Drake Maye" throw.
Sam was part of a team that ran through a brutal division last year, and won the Superbowl. He has proven he can help this team win it all. Period. But let's also not pretend that at least 3 of his passes in the Superbowl should have been picks (first out-route to Barner, should have been a pick 6. Instead it goes right through the defenders hands and Barner makes the catch. Missed touchdown to JSN before the half, Gonzalez dropped it. Bomb to Shaheed, Gonzalez makes a great adjustment on an underthrown ball but can't bring it in.
I think Sam will get back into a flow again. Just need to be patient.
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u/1620081392477 3h ago
It all comes down to sample size IMO
Some fans don't think a small sample size is enough to go from "those decisions sucked" to "he sucks".
Others do, and are ready to shout it from the rooftops (lol).
Both groups annoy the other
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u/Gregskis 3h ago
He makes dumb decisions. He’s always made dumb decisions. When he doesn’t, we win.
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u/grgunderson 4h ago
Interested if you decide to change your tune if they end up losing this game...
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u/therealmudslinger 4h ago
I admit to being an overreacting fan. I just really hoped that we would pick up where he left off. He looks skittish out there and less decisive than I'd like but it's early.
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u/Loisalene 4h ago
We (collectively) have been so spoiled over decades! Mike Holmgren, Pete Carroll, and now Mick Mc.D. Things were not always this good for us.
Way back in the waning days of the Kingdome and John Elway's career, a very drunk me stood up and yelled at the Denver fans behind us "That's ok, we're Used to losing!! We're SEAHAWK fans!"
Seahawk fan through thick and thin and this is most definitely Thick!
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u/PositiveSpeedRun 4h ago
I'm more worried about the run game currently. Teams just arent respecting the run and it makes it harder on Sam Darnold
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u/jrobski96 3h ago
I, too, am a glass half full guy. I hope they figure it out soon tho. The draft next year could be interesting if he doesn't.
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u/Artisttype1984 3h ago
As brutal as that niners game was, Hawks were a first down away from winning it IMO, and they lost by 3 to a very good team
I agree with all your points, and see Sam having a good game tonight and our Defense doing what they do.
Keep penalties at a minimum, no turnovers, and Seahawks win tonight
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u/Significant_Pain_499 3h ago
I think Darnold definitely deserves all the criticism. He has regressed. He's holding the ball too long (again), staring down receivers (again), etc. But he stopped doing that stuff last year, and that's why we went all the way. So he can do it again. But I think it's unfair to blame Fleury or anyone else for his poor play. It's on him.
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u/dbandroid 3h ago
Yeah i think there is a lot of overreaction, but it was not crazy to think that a career backup would not play great football 3 years in a row.
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u/CCCP85 2h ago
I think some of Darnold's play this year has been a bit concerning, specifically some of the bone headed turnovers and I think its valid concerns. I do think we win week 3 with Lock in to be honest. I think we will improve in a lot of ways on all fronts, but specifically turnovers. If we played cleaner, we easily beat the 9ers. We have way less injuries than they do, so we have no excuses if we lose to them again.
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u/RoyalEngine2885 2h ago
I'm not worried about skill, I'm worried about discipline. This team is comfortably 5-0 without dogshit piles of penalties and turnovers.
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u/ThunderBeast1985 2h ago
I was pretty pissed after the 9ers loss, but now I genuinely think we’re going to turn things around. Starting by winning tonight comfortably.
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u/goodolarchie 2h ago
"I miss Kubiak/K9/Charbs" is my week to week sentiment, more than any. I don't put the losses on Sam, squarely, though he's a large plurality. I do understand why folks are making the "Jets/ghosts" comparisons, because Niners/Commanders looked closer to Jets-Sam than 25-Postseason-Sam. Both feel like they are uncharacteristic rather than regressions to the mean.
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u/Jaytalfam 2h ago
Thank goodness mistakes and penalties are fixable. And they will be fixed, because the Seahawks are a great team with great coaches; we can (should) be happy about that. They're going to win a lot of games.
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u/Beneficial_Bake_9570 2h ago
i honestly think it has been more about play calling rather than 100% sam, not too impressed with fleury so far, especially after that run-fumble on our 1
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u/thatmarcelfaust 1h ago
Agree with everything except the fact that Darnold isn’t carried by the defense. The reason that we had such a productive offense last season was because the defense took the ball away and forced punts like nobodies business. I’m not saying the offense wasn’t good, but they a lot of opportunities for success due to the defense playing lights out.
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u/Telefunkin 1h ago
I think people need to calm their titties about a lot of shit. Compare us now to last year and we’re about the same at this point. Compare us to 2014 and we’re off to a similar start and what happened both years?
Also we’ve put up something like 90 points in 3 games despite the turnovers we haven’t lost by more than 3 in 2 years. Yes we need to secure the ball better, but we’re still doing good. We fix that and the sky is the limit.
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u/blanemcc 1h ago
I think Sam, for whatever reason, is overthinking things. He did this massively last season as well, thinking he had to take risks and put things on his shoulders.
Ernie just needs to get in front of the press, drop a "fuck you" and help get his belief levels back
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u/GratefulnaLover 1h ago
He looks sluggish like not 100%. Obviously they are always going to say they are ready to play and that they feel fine etc blah blah blah… spare me the semantics…
The eye test says he doesn’t look right. The INTs are adding up to L’s… these were all winnable games that we lost but we lost them…
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u/Rin_C 1h ago
The casuals/bandwagons are the ones that complains and never look at the stats. They’re letting the loss last Sunday affect them so much. Sam improved so much from his Jets days. What he only needs is full confidence he can finally follow Fleury’s system and stay consistent on getting the ball to the end zone.
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u/werewolf2112 1h ago
Yeah, I agree. Look man in Hindsight. We should be undefeated if it wasn’t for our boneheaded dumbass mistakes offensively as a whole.
We literally have lost two games by a total of five freaking points.
Our defense is still a Super Bowl championship defense they are chip ready! If it wasn’t for our offensive miscues and if the Seahawks offensive wise were playing complementary football.
To help out our elite defense, we wouldn’t be talking about this! Football shit happens. Every season is different.
I mean as a Seahawks fan just look at what other teams are going throughout the league right now all the upsets and or drama with all the other teams every single week it’s something bizarre.
That’s football! I truly do hope that we do figure out to be more disciplined and figure out our running back situation to honestly play complementary football!
Mike Mac and even Sam D understand this so we’ll see if they can course correct it starting tonight in Denver! Perfect chance to because Denver is more injury prone on the DNP list than we are so let’s hope they take advantage
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u/W00D-SMASH 1h ago
Darnold has been awful at times so far this year. He is making decisions that are putting us in a bad spot, and maybe it's not a big deal last year, but our running game is dog shit right now so every mistake he makes is going to look worse.
Season is early, lots more time to get settled and figured it out. He had some pretty bad moments last year as well. Just need to hope that when Zach comes back that makes our running game vastly better, otherwise, gonna be a rough year.
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u/bdizzle404 1h ago
i think it’s okay to be upset with how he’s been playing. has he been awful? no, but also his turnovers have cost us games last year and this year. yeah sometimes we get upset and say put drew lock in, but after seeing lock play lights out just for sam to come back and throw some meatball subs, it’s easy to make comparisons. i think we will be fine, but if sam keeps causing costly turnovers i think there is a real conversation to see what lock can do. don’t get me wrong, i love sam for locking in last year and getting us another SB, but he seriously has got to make better decisions. i don’t want sam to regress, i want us to be great and get another championship(obviously).
go hawks!
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u/-_Vin_- 4h ago
QB dick sucking posts are always the same.
CALM DOWN AND ESPECIALLY NO ONE DISAGREE WITH ME!
Darnold is just Darnold. He can have great games or just shit the bed. Rarely do we get a game from him where he just plays within the offense like he did in last year's playoffs. He's reverted to himself. Helter skelter, Jekyll and Hyde, ass or hero. He's as inconsistent as he's ever been so far this year. He's statistically a turnover machine. That's not an opinion. That's a statistical truth that only an absolute dumbfuck would argue. It's on paper. Leads the league in that and he needs to be better, period.
Right now he's just in the class of McMahon, Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, and Wilson, guys who could only ever get a ring with an all time defense. He's not upper echelon.
Y'all seriously need to get off these QBs dicks. They're just QBs. You don't need to bend the knee and pledge your loyalty. Seahawks first, QBs and every other position second, but Seahawks fucking first.
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u/HotDogFingers01 4h ago
There are some comments about Sam, but it's a tiny little fraction of mouth breathers who know more about fantasy football than real football. This always happens after a SB. The bandwagon overflows with some of the densest. most reactionary people on the planet.
You want to see a REAL QB crash out? Go visit the Vikings sub. That's been a 3 year circus tearing that community apart. It's comical at this point. I've never seen a 5-0 team be so miserable.
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u/Royalphush 2h ago
This gunslinger angle erks me. Darnold doesn’t even have a cannon so realistically the only reason that’s bought up is to excuse interceptions which is actually wild.
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u/ZachOnTap 4h ago
I can’t read the game threads here because of all the doomsdayers. So many over reactions. Would love to be 5-0 right now but feel good about our defense, looking forward to our RBs returning, and optimistic that our new OC and QB will improve as the season goes on. Just need to make the playoffs relatively healthy and with some momentum.
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u/CrimsonCalm 4h ago
Price and Charb aren’t fixing the RB room.
It was bad WITH Price. Charb isn’t going to be full workload for months.
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u/resetallthethings 3h ago
fumbles were still bad with price but we had someone who could actually get extra yards past what were blocked.
Charbs doesn't fumble
at this point last year we weren't happy with our running production even though we had k9 as well
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u/CrimsonCalm 3h ago
That’s because teams were loading the box against the Seahawks at the beginning the season. They faced a loaded box at 4th highest rate last season at this point.
Up to week 5 they face a loaded box at the 13th highest rate so far.Reason why the RB’s struggled is pretty much that reason, but opened up the pass game for JSN.
Anyway, all that said it’s not really relevant. The problem with our RB room isn’t simply fumbles. It’s that they can’t get to the edge and Charb can’t either, he’s also not going to get a ton of carries. Hes probably going to come back and get 5-10 carries a game for a while.
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u/HedonismIsTheWay 3h ago
Yeah, we need somebody with the finesse to change up their run when needed and has rock solid ball security. Charbs is a bruiser that can pound through for a few yards regularly. That's valuable, but we need that player that people know can find a hole for 30 yards if the secondary isn't careful. I've seen glimpses of that from Wilson and Price, but they're not there yet. So our opponents aren't fearful enough of our run game for the play action to draw enough attention.
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u/RedditBonfire 3h ago
My problem is the play calling. Its a significant detraction from last season and it's not playing to the strengths of the team. I feel like it's just a random grab bag of "let's see what happens" I feel like I'm watching someone play their first game of Madden with the way the offensive play calling is going.
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u/Phuddy Emerald City Route Artist 4h ago
Some fans forget sports is a rollercoaster and we just gotta ride the ride sometimes. Also it can’t be the only thing you look forward to in your life or you will essentially only be satisfied if we win the SB every year.