Ideally, you don’t want Carolina Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold making any type of throw for your team right now. (Sorry, Sam.)
But there are two throws, in particular, that you definitely don’t want him trying.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar took a detailed dive into which passers are the NFL’s worst at making specific types of attempts. Farrar, for instance, noted plays such the designed rollout, the run pass option (RPO), play-action (with and without) and ones while facing both the blitz and pressure.
Darnold, unfortunately, takes home two prizes—the first of which comes as a result of his lowly performance on three-step drops.
“On three-step throws for the Panthers last season, the embattled veteran completed 82 of 158 passes for 942 yards, 442 air yards, three touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a passer rating of 58.0 — the lowest for any quarterback with at least 100 three-step attempts in 2021,” Farrar writes. “Darnold also had the lowest Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt with 3.2. Trevor Lawrence had the second-lowest ANY/A at 3.9, and the second-lowest passer rating at 64.3, throwing five touchdowns and nine interceptions on three-step drops. Joe Burrow led the league with 10 three-step interceptions, but as he threw 27 three-step touchdowns, we’ll let that slide.”
For his second no-no, Darnold has also proven to be the league’s worst quarterback on throws with pre-snap motion.
“Back to Darnold, who was the NFL’s worst quarterback last season with the “help” of pre-snap motion — generally, that’s a cheat code for quarterbacks, but some don’t like it because it muddies their picture. Darnold would appear to be one of those guys. He completed 115 of 201 passes with motion for 1,082 yards, 471 air yards, seven touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a passer rating of 65.1. Cam Newton had a passer rating of 59.2 on pre-snap motion throws, so maybe the Panthers should just throw that idea out altogether.”
Quite frankly, Darnold is lucky he hasn’t been thrown out as well. The former third overall pick turned in yet another stinker of a season in 2021—having completing 59.9 percent of his passes (of every variety) for nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
But perhaps he can take solace in the fact that New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson, whom he was pushed out for last spring, was identified as the worst thrower of four different passes—the five-step drop, the seven-step drop, the designed rollout and when blitzed. Hey, at least he’s beating out someone in something . . .
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