Sam Darnold’s season in Seattle has become a lot more complicated after the Seahawks’ offseason changes, and one NFL insider believes the missing pieces are obvious.
In a Casino.org piece published Tuesday, Jason La Canfora pointed to the departures of offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and running back Kenneth Walker III as part of the reason Darnold has slipped back to the version of himself people remember from earlier in his career.
Kubiak left Seattle after helping Darnold and the Seahawks win the Super Bowl this past February, taking over as the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach. Seattle also moved on from Walker, the Super Bowl LX Most Valuable Player, and he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency.
La Canfora’s view was blunt. He said Darnold is "regressing to his form of three or four years ago."
"He is seeing ghosts again, his fundamentals are suffering, and some execs I know who have been with him in the past - early in his career when he looked like a first-round bust - see too much of that in him now," La Canfora wrote about Darnold. "This is a system QB who needs to feel a certain level of genius in his playcaller. He needs a QB sensei as his guru, and he is working with a questionable-at-best offensive coordinator this year."
Seattle turned to former San Francisco 49ers assistant coach Brian Fleury to replace Kubiak, but the on-field results have not been nearly as clean. Darnold also dealt with a glute injury in Seattle’s Week 1 win over the New England Patriots, a problem the team called a "very unique soft-tissue" issue. He returned in Week 3, and the Seahawks have gone from 2-0 to 3-3 since then.
The numbers through Week 6 have been rough. According to Pro Football Reference, Darnold ranked 26th among qualified players with a 41.6 adjusted QBR, 27th with a 77.4 passer rating and 25th with a 60.4 percent completion percentage. He has thrown seven touchdown passes and seven interceptions.
Walker, meanwhile, has flourished in Kansas City. The Chiefs are 5-0, and La Canfora suggested Walker may be in the mix as a legitimate Most Valuable Player Award candidate by the time Week 18 ends. StatMuse had Walker leading the league with 152 yards from scrimmage per game entering Tuesday.
La Canfora added that Seattle’s choice not to keep Walker "looks shortsighted now." If that remains the case into January, the Seahawks could be facing some uneasy conversations about Darnold’s future.
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