 A player that could be dealt this offseason, Sam Darnold, New York Jets quarterback, Robert Sala noncommittal on the future of Sam Darnold has not come out and said that he's going to be the quarterback of the future, moving forward for the Jets and could be dealt. Some people are speculating to a quarterback needed team. The question is, are we sleeping on Sam Darnold? Is he, as a matter of fact, a very good quarterback and we just don't know about it? One of the statistics and the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that question is, no, he's not a good quarterback, 45 touchdowns to 39 interceptions in his career. His best season was 19 touchdowns to 13 interceptions in 2019. He's been sacked more than any of the quarterback in that 2018 draft class 98 times in 38 games. His top targets that he's had to deal with the majority of his NFL career, Robbie Anderson and Jameson Crowder. He hasn't had the best protection either. We all know this. And how can we forget the ever so lovable head coach, Adam Gase, best coach in the NFL. Darnold has really had a lot thrown at him with the New York Jets and that has really clouded everybody's judgment on whether he's a good quarterback and is he really a first round talent like he was when he was drafted number three overall by the New York Jets in 2018. What we wanted to do is we wanted to really analyze this and watch some games of Sam Darnold and really break down the film and some throws that he's made. So we looked at the stats and we found three games last year in 2020. There's been some positives for Sam Darnold, three games that he had over a 90 quarterback rating. Week two against the 49ers, week 13 against the Las Vegas Raiders and then week 15 and then upset against the LA Rams. Those three games, we watched every throw that he made and this is what we came up with. Three reasons why he is as a matter of fact a good quarterback in the NFL. Number one, he's accurate. Just hold on right there. I know you're going to say look at his completion percentage. 69% of his passes completed. I think two years it was 59% and then his career high was in 2019 when he threw for 61%. I might be wrong on that but yeah, 61% on a career high, that's not that good. But if you look past the stats and you look at the reason on why he was so inaccurate in those three seasons, a lot of things make a lot of sense. For instance, we watched those throws that he made in those three games against the 49ers, Raiders and the Rams and a lot of those were drop passes. A lot of that was due to bad protection and him having to throw away the ball. For instance, a specific example, Braxton Berrios, the wide receiver on the Jets, dropped a pass in that game against the LA Rams and what would have been a touchdown for Sam Darnold. But Berrios dropped the pass incomplete, bad protection as well. We know that Mackay Bechton has shown some flashes and is a very good player but that offensive line, we know the struggles of the Jets offensive line has. But if you look past all of that and you see him throw in a clean pocket, I'm on record of saying that he's one of the better quarterbacks in a clean pocket as far as accuracy goes. So if you give him a good offensive line and receivers that don't drop the ball, where James and Crowder is your number one receiver, who knows? The accuracy of Sam Darnold is really going to show at that point and I feel like a lot of more people are going to see that Sam Darnold is worthy of being a first round talent just because of how deadly accurate he can be when he has the weapons around him. So number two reason, he's smart. That's very broad because quarterbacks in the NFL, all of them are smart. You have to know a whole entire playbook, you have to know defenses and coverages and it's a very, very hard position to play. So Darnold is a very smart man but he's smart I would say at the quarterback position just because of the way he played really showed us how smart he is. The stats won't show it but just from watching him play it looks as if he knows what coverage a defense is running on every single down. I get it, every quarterback is smart and every quarterback may know what coverage a defense is running but he has such great awareness that he knows which players are blitzing, which players are going out on coverage, which players are playing in the flat or playing deep, he knows all of that. He's aware of how many players are blitzing like I mentioned and even though he knows that a player is blitzing, he stays cool in the pocket the whole time and he makes the throw, that's like I said, number one reason, accurate. For instance, in that game against Las Vegas, there was a play where there was a DB blitz. I believe it was a corner, maybe it was a safety but it was a corner that was blitzing, Sam Darnold knew that, Sam Darnold on the side, you could see him look over and he still did not panic, took advantage of that coverage because where that DB came from from the blitz, he left the receiver open in that area where Darnold can make that throw and make a completion. The number three reason on why he's a very good quarterback, he gets the ball out quick. I get it, every NFL quarterback needs to get the ball out quick, it's basic knowledge but if you watch him play, not only does he get the ball out quick but he gets it to a player that he knows is going to get five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten yards, get the first down with that yards after the catch and that goes back to how smart Sam Darnold is. Maybe it's a lack of talent on the New York Jets offense, maybe it's because of the bad O-line that he has to get the ball out quick, maybe it's because of the lack of talent at the wide receiver position when they can't get open that easily, he has to check it down or have to get the ball out quick otherwise he's going to get sacked. Maybe it's because of those reasons but he's learned in those games that we watched and those positive games and those games that he performed really well, gets the ball out quick, is smart and is accurate. Three things that's going to be the making of a good quarterback in the NFL. Whether it be with the New York Jets who brings in maybe a good offensive lineman in the draft, maybe it's a wide receiver, maybe free agency, they land some good free agents, I don't know what it may be but if he gets some talent around him with the Jets, gets traded to the Bears, another NFL team, who knows? And he has some talent, Sam Darnold, high possibility he could be a quarterback that could be productive in the NFL. But leave your comments and leave your thoughts down below. Do you believe that Sam Darnold has been unfairly seen as a bad quarterback in the NFL or do you feel like that he has potential of being one of the better quarterbacks if he were just in the right situation?