If you watched the second half of the Seahawks’ game on Monday night against Houston, you saw Darnold, playing with a lead, make two plays that provided reminders of why the Vikings let him leave in free agency.
He threw late and poorly over the middle for an interception, a reminder of his collapse in Detroit. In his own end zone, he spun away from pressure up the middle into more trouble, yielding ground and fumbling. The Texans recovered the fumble for a touchdown, a reminder of his panic in the playoff game against the Rams.
The Vikings’ goal is to win a Super Bowl. Darnold showed against the Lions and Rams last January that he can’t handle that kind of pressure. Let’s not give him a passing grade in Seattle until we see how he handles big games.
There are two things wrong with the general analysis of Jones:
1. That Kevin O’Connell should receive credit for the way Jones is playing this season. Shouldn’t we give Jones’ actual coaches, who spent the offseason, training camp and this season coaching Jones, more credit?
2. There are 32 teams in the NFL. None offered Jones a starting job this offseason. He shrewdly left the Vikings to sign with the team that gave him the best chance of winning a starting job — Indianapolis, where Anthony Richardson has struggled. The Vikings couldn’t offer Jones a chance to compete for their quarterback job, so they had no chance of keeping him.