The Bucs & Sam Darnold
April 17th, 2022
Window opening?
With all kinds of hot chatter that the Panthers are about to make a play for Baker Mayfield, Joe has to look at the quarterback the Panthers would be giving up on — a guy Bucco Bruce Arians endorsed at the No. 3 overall pick in 2018.
After retiring as Cardinals head coach after the 2017 season, Arians jumped into broadcasting and quickly became a more vocal fan of his good friend Todd Bowles, who was in his fourth season of stumbling as the Jets head coach.
In 2018, the Jets traded a fat haul of draft picks to Indianapolis for the No. 3 overall pick and the right to draft quarterback Sam Darnold. Joe will go out on a wild limb and say Bowles asked Arians, the Quarterback Whisperer, for his take on Darnold and got a powerful endorsement in return.
Internet researchers will find 2018 media stories of Arians professing his love of Darnold midway through his rookie season, including an Arians film breakdown at TheAthletic.com and a piece in the New York Post among others.
Darnold is due $18 million guaranteed this season and it’s a safe bet that he’ll be cut if the Panthers complete their move on Mayfield. At that point, Darnold would be unemployed and likely looking to latch on somewhere for a minimum contract.
Might the Bucs pounce at that point? Joe would sure hope so. Darnold, 24, is a far, far better QB option than Ryan Griffin and Joe can’t think of anything better for consultant Arians to do than to spend several hours per week along side Darnold and Kyle Trask.
Why? Some dude named Brady might be playing beach volleyball in Miami next season.
April 17th, 2022 at 5:43 pm
Good luck with him, he’s a scaredy cat.
April 17th, 2022 at 5:45 pm
Pick him up in a heartbeat you don’t need Gabbert or Griffin unless you are going to trade Trask.
April 17th, 2022 at 5:47 pm
minimum only….this is crazy, i dont know
April 17th, 2022 at 6:04 pm
A QB whisperer doesn’t exist that could fix that pud. He looks the part, but so did Ryan leaf. Guys with his size and arm talent can always hold a clipboard. I’d take half the third string QBs before even giving him a sniff. The Patriots broke him. He’ll forever see ghosts 👻
April 17th, 2022 at 6:05 pm
No thanks! In the short term even if Darnold is a better player than Gabbert he would be a worse option as our backup QB this year because it would take him most of the year to learn and be comfortable in the system. Gabbert at least knows it like the back of his hand. Not to mention Brady is more comfortable working with Gabbert. Long term I’d rather role the dice on Trask’s development than a retread like Darnold who has already failed with two teams. Plus Darnold is not signing for 2.25m like Gabbert did.
April 17th, 2022 at 6:13 pm
I guess Darnold could be a project for BA as he looks for assignments to do in his new position. Heck, perhaps he could also work one on one with Trask while he’s at it.
April 17th, 2022 at 6:40 pm
It would be a total teardown. His footwork is horrifying, and his decision making is even worse. Hard to correct those things, this late in his development. It’s called the Not For Long league for a reason. Props to Jerry G. Why not. If he costs you a bag of Brady’s deflated footballs. Give BA something to do. At this point, nothing could hurt.
April 17th, 2022 at 6:46 pm
Maybe at minimum……younger than Gabbert & Griffin…..perhaps some miracle worker can work their magic on him.
April 17th, 2022 at 6:50 pm
They gonna let Trask go always do the good ones lol
April 17th, 2022 at 7:02 pm
Make sure you have Brady’s blessing before making the move.
He’ll be a big part of the “re-training” process.
April 17th, 2022 at 7:09 pm
Just because he indorsed him at one point doesn’t mean anything today. After seeing him play a few games I highly doubt that endorsement still holds can’t wait until the draft really need new material to read about.
April 17th, 2022 at 7:11 pm
Second thought…
Nah!
No need to burden Brady with anything but winning.
PASS
April 17th, 2022 at 7:19 pm
That would be a much stronger post Tom Brady era QB, I would be willing to pay the highest price
April 17th, 2022 at 7:26 pm
What about Kyle Trask?
April 17th, 2022 at 7:28 pm
Bruce arians is no quarterback whisperer. Every quarterback has career highs in interceptions in his offense. His offensive scheme is a simpleton’s scheme and isn’t creative at all like a shanahan or a mcvay or a Sean Payton or even a Josh McDaniels. The success of the Bucs offense is reliant on the elite hall of Fame talent (Evans, gronk, Antonio brown, and even Godwin) winning One on one matchups, not on genius play calling or play designs. That’s why they always look like hot garbage against the saints because of Arians/Leftwich inability/reluctance to adjust…. Period!
April 17th, 2022 at 7:33 pm
Just say no, he can endorsed all he wants, he still can’t play for beans.
We have a QB being groomed, stick to the script
April 17th, 2022 at 7:35 pm
Is Tom Moore sticking around now that BA is in the front office?
April 17th, 2022 at 7:36 pm
If Matt Corral drops we should draft him.
April 17th, 2022 at 7:42 pm
I cant see Bowles buying in to this.
April 17th, 2022 at 7:47 pm
I’d be in favor of this move. Would they dump both Gabbert and Griffin then or would they keep 4 QBs? Last year, you could afford to keep 4 with Griffin riding the practice squad the whole time. This year, I guess you could do the same game. I wonder if Gabbert would get plucked from the practice squad?
Anyway, it probably won’t happen.
April 17th, 2022 at 8:39 pm
I equate this to buying a damaged auto with the promise of turning it into a sweet muscle car……
Rarely seems to work out as planned!
April 17th, 2022 at 8:46 pm
I say no, because Trask should be ready by next year, when Brady leaves.
April 17th, 2022 at 8:47 pm
Gag me with a spoon!
Baker, MAYBE. He’s gotta clear waivers.
That said, anybody gonna watch the Bandits tonight?
They are showing an entire boring hour showing how they’re setting up the league. Gonna watch a movie or Living till 9
April 17th, 2022 at 9:08 pm
What on earth would be the point of wasting any money on Sam Darnold? He’s progressively gotten worse every year in the league.
This is the same asinine arguement made for bringing in Josh Rosen, I bought it that time, won’t this time. The difference between Rosen and Darnold is Rosen didn’t have a big enough sample size to judge off of, Darnold has plenty of tape to judge.
April 17th, 2022 at 9:10 pm
@redsparrow. I feel the same way exact way. You laid it out perfectly. I feel like I’m being gaslit when I point out the obvious flaws in this offense just because we have a top 5 offense. These flaws have hurt us against the Saints and Rams.
April 17th, 2022 at 9:16 pm
Folks have no idea what we have in Kyle Trask. He’s got excellent size (6’5″ & 236 lbs), he only just turned 24, he had an excellent last 2 years as starter at UF (67.9% completion rate, 68 TDs against only 15 INTs), AND … he’ll have had 2 years learning behind Tom Brady & from pretty good QB coaches (BA, Tom Moore & Clyde).
Sam Darnold in comparison has gotten 4 years under his belt as a starting NFL Qb. Results: 59.8% completion rate, 54 total TDs against 52 INTs, and oh ya, a 17-32 won-loss record. He also started his last 2 years at USC: 64.9% completion rate, 57 TDs against 22 INTs.
Darnold might’ve been the #3 pick back in 2018, but I’ll stick with Kyle Trask when it comes to potential.
April 17th, 2022 at 9:19 pm
Are they not playing the game?
April 17th, 2022 at 9:27 pm
If these clowns think in gonna pay ten dollars to watch a league that might fold in a few weeks they are gonna hafta polish my knob.
April 17th, 2022 at 9:29 pm
Play Trask.
April 17th, 2022 at 9:36 pm
A few months ago, from a JBF poster: “Kyle Trask was a wasted pick, the Bucs should’ve taken Kelvin Joseph”, the Bucs would’ve had to trade up for Joseph, and he’s in a bit of trouble now.
Bucs need to see what they have in Trask, who I’m guessing will be a decent backup QB. We already know what Darnold is.
April 17th, 2022 at 9:43 pm
No! Darnold is nothing but fools gold.
April 17th, 2022 at 10:07 pm
I’ve seen enough of darnold to hope he plays for the stinking Panthers again this year.
April 17th, 2022 at 10:08 pm
People need to get a grip. We wouldn’t be bringing in Darnold as a future starter. He’s a backup. Trask is likely the future if he’s all they’ve been saying he is. Darnold would be a backup. If you think having a failed starter as a backup is such a horrible idea, you obviously don’t know how the NFL works. I mean, he at least has enough talent that he was a first round pick. Most of the other scrub backups in the league can’t say that. You seriously think having that guy around as your 3rd string QB is so horrible? Jeeezus… Haters gonna hate.
April 17th, 2022 at 10:16 pm
@Defense Rules I watched Trask closely after Florida’s 4-1 start. Trask made some tremendous throws that year. They were often followed by some of the dumbest throws I’ve ever witnessed. He was drafted in the 60’s for a reason.
April 17th, 2022 at 10:17 pm
Remember the dismal melancholy despair
the weeks following TB’s “retirement?
The whole franchise is one snap away from a sudden ending
April 17th, 2022 at 10:25 pm
SB isn’t this more fun. Enjoy the year…
April 17th, 2022 at 11:01 pm
Plz take darnold of our hands plz and thanks
April 17th, 2022 at 11:05 pm
Plz take him off our hands
Plz and Thank you
April 18th, 2022 at 12:13 am
It turns out they canceled the Bandits game cuz of weather and replaced it with complete crap. At first I thought I was watching a much-too- long pregame show. I tried watching other stuff for a while but at 900 it was a boring tribute to John Madden.
NFL plays in the rain.
Tommorow night I’ll watch my normal Monday tv.
I doubt they’ll last past May.
April 18th, 2022 at 12:19 am
BTW, they insinuated the game would start at 915
April 18th, 2022 at 2:43 am
Cool with me.
April 18th, 2022 at 3:16 am
sorry I have to disagree with joe far far better is a far far reach Darnolds trash and its time to take it out
April 18th, 2022 at 3:18 am
sorry I have to disagree with joe far far better is ridiculous if he comes to Tampa it will be with the bandits but they might even have a better qb
April 18th, 2022 at 5:14 am
The April Fool Jokes ended on the 1st! I think Arians would say something nice about any QB publicly!
April 18th, 2022 at 7:01 am
Darnold to the Saints
April 18th, 2022 at 9:18 am
Darnold doesn’t have it. Never did.
April 18th, 2022 at 9:53 am
Dear god no
April 18th, 2022 at 10:39 am
@Red Sparrow ✊🏼. Amen!
@GOB, I must be channeling my inner Beavis, but🤣🤣🤣
“a bag of Brady’s deflated footballs.”
April 18th, 2022 at 10:51 am
GOB … ‘He was drafted in the 60’s for a reason’.
Yes he was. BUT … we still don’t know what we’ve got in him at this point. He must have some talent to have started at a major SEC school for 2 years AND to have been a Heisman candidate his senior year. Plus by the time he does get to start he’ll have had 2 years of ‘grad school’ under his belt, learning from some pretty good ‘professors’.
We’ll never know if he can run with the big dogs if we keep him chained up on the porch.
April 18th, 2022 at 11:33 am
He’s proven he doesn’t belong in the NFL.
I feel the same about Baker, too.
April 18th, 2022 at 11:40 am
Would be a good pickup to replace Trashk
April 18th, 2022 at 1:10 pm
sam darnold is the back up that we don’t need…ever…
he can back that azz up in another division or another conference for all i care…
remember last year how some poster on here was talking about how he had a deformed head…???
i don’t see them being able to fit his moose head into a bucs throwback helmet in 2023, so just keep the moose head away from one buc
April 18th, 2022 at 3:24 pm
A BIG…NO THANKS to Darnold!!!!!!!