Minnesota’s coach thinks both guys can play, and now it’s about picking one that’ll translate when the games count. Plus much more on the other rookie quarterbacks after Week 1 of preseason.
We’re at 17 teams now on my NFL training camp tour, and will be at 21 by the end of the week. And with that, here are the takeaways after the first full weekend of preseason games.It’s obvious how good his situation is with the Minnesota Vikings—with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, Christian Darrisaw, Kevin O’Connell, Wes Phillips and Josh McCown, among others, giving the rookie a rock-solid supporting cast and football infrastructure.
After that, it was about writing a script that gave McCarthy and Darnold the best chance to improve, as simple as that sounds. Darnold, of course, had played in different systems and for three different teams before arriving in Minnesota after signing a one-year, $10 million deal as a free agent, while McCarthy was coming from a very stable college environment. So while their needs would cross over at times, the areas where they could make leaps were different from one another.
“What we’ve got to avoid is the illusion of quarterback play,” he continued. “It might be something as simple as,You get a top-10 pass rush in this league, and you took the wrong drop. You started your eyes in the wrong spot, and you fell into a completion where somebody watching practice may say,And that part of it, obviously, comes down to what O’Connell knows and we don’t.
“I know what I called,” O’Connell said. “I know what you did, every single snap. I also know what was not exactly right, what was a little shaky. It might be little things. It might be calling plays in the huddle. It might be cadence at the line of scrimmage, remembering to send your motion. Every single time one of those things happens, that has nothing to do with your ability to play the position.
Playing for Kyle Shanahan and with a good group of teammates, Darnold was playing faster, and more decisively, and making the most out of the cameo he was getting ahead of his March free agency. I filed it away at the time, thinking maybe he could be this year’s version of Baker Mayfield last year. Then, he landed with O’Connell, which gave me more reason to think it could happen.“I just learned so much in San Francisco, not only from the coaches, but from the players,” he told me last week.
And, if he can win the job in Minnesota, it does set Darnold up to do what his ex-teammate Mayfield did with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, or what his fellow ex-Jet Smith has done in Seattle. You saw a Detroit Lions player in a fight last week during joint practices with the New York Giants, but it was how they didn’t fight when I was in Detroit that got my attention.
"The best I’ve ever been around. I don’t think you can teach it. I think he’s just got it,” Jared Goff told me in a quiet moment after that practice on Dan Campbell’s emotional IQ. “All of our coaching staff will watch him in front of the room—he knows exactly when to push, exactly when to pull. Even sometimes when you’re like,. He can see ahead better than a lot of guys. I’ve had many moments the last three years where he’s asked for more from me. I appreciate that.
And I think it’s a credit to the 42-year-old, now going into his fifth year in charge, that he’s doing things this way. What can we hone in on, what are the things that Dorse brings from his background, things we can bring in here, things our new coaches have done, what can we do to put a system together that really fits our guys?
Add to that what Dickerson brings from the Seahawks and Rams run games, what Roy Istvan can inject as assistant line coach after working for Jeff Stoutland in Philly, and what Staley has coming over from Detroit, and Stefanski’s giving his team a lot of new levers to pull.“It’s absolutely a process, and that’s our job, to find out what best fits our guys,” Stefanski added. “And you leave a lot of good ideas on the cutting-room floor.
If San Francisco pulls if off, don’t be surprised. Shanahan, GM John Lynch and cap-side mastermind Paraag Marathe went down this road with Samuel and Nick Bosa the past two years. That’s why my guess would be that they find a way out out a deal with another star player. Again. • The Atlanta Falcons got a solid performance from Michael Penix Jr. Outside of a few missed connections resulting from his timing being a bit off with his receivers, Penix showcased his down-the-field accuracy and ran a really clean operation with the poise of a guy who was a multi-year starter in both the Big Ten and the Pac-12.
• It was a shame to see Marquise “Hollywood” Brown go down. He and first-round pick Xavier Worthy had created a dynamic for the Kansas City Chiefs where it looked like they’d not just make plays down the field working together, but also clear space for Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice to work after the catch underneath. We’ll see how fast Brown gets back out there.
So, essentially, Jones is telling Lamb that the Cowboys are comfortable with where they are in the negotiation. Really, the problem here is similar to the problem in the Aiyuk talks, which is that Justin Jefferson’s deal is sitting out there a full 25% ahead of the other deals done by young receivers this offseason.
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