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EAGAN – If you stop the tape when Sam Darnold first brings his arm back to throw the football and then look at where Jordan Addison was on his route, it is mind-boggling to figure out how Darnold knew where he would be and how he put the ball down. just the right amount of speed and arc on the ball to move it over a leaping defender and into Addison’s hands. It’s like watching a golfer land a chip shot on the green, but the green is moving at 20 miles per hour.
On the sideline, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips was currently concerned about the ball not getting over the zone defender underneath.
“We respond just like everyone else,” Phillips said. “’Ahhhhh!’ And you know, ‘man, what a throw, great throw.’
“He’s confident in his ability and knows he has it in the bag, certainly not a throw I would have ever attempted,” said Phillips, who played quarterback in college.
Running back Aaron Jones was still a little frustrated with himself for not catching a Darnold dime on a throw into the end zone earlier in the game. The veteran running back, who has spent most of his career catching balls from Aaron Rodgers’ legendary arm, sees similarities with the way Darnold runs him.
“I would say they both have talent, they can both stretch the field,” Jones said. “To me they look alike. Even if you think you are not open, you are open. He’s going to put it somewhere where only you can get it. I had one in the game that I probably should have. But a lot of quarterbacks don’t even throw the ball.”
TJ Hockenson spent the early part of his career with one of the top talents of the past two decades in the NFL: Rams QB Matthew Stafford. Hockenson gets a kick out of seeing Darnold make some of the same types of throws he saw from former No. 1 overall pick Stafford.
“I love watching Sam release those balls. A lot of times you know he’s throwing one deep and it’s fun to watch and he’s just floating through the air, it looks like he just taps it and it goes. ” Hockenson said.
The veteran tight end mentioned several other high-difficulty passes to Addison in addition to the ball as his favorites from the win over Arizona.
“There’s one where I sat down, and (the linebacker) comes up to me, and he hits Jets (Jefferson) on the (route) behind it, that was pretty sweet,” Hockenson said. “When I watched that on the jumbotron, it barely passed his hand. When he does things like that, he’s one of the best at it.”
Is a Stafford-style no-look pass in Darnold’s future?
“I haven’t seen Sam’s show up yet, but I’m sure he can do it,” Hockenson said.
Darnold’s gift for throwing the football has been there since the first time he played quarterback, but it wasn’t always refined. He was originally a linebacker and receiver in high school and didn’t play a full season until he was a senior. He had to learn not to throw the ball through a wall every time.
“Every ball I throw doesn’t have to be a fastball,” Darnold said. “Being able to throw with some touch, but other times, man, you gotta drill it in sometimes and not be afraid to do that.”
There were many traits that led to Darnold being picked high in the NFL Draft, but the ability to throw with touch and “drill in” was key when he was drafted No. 3 overall in 2018. Lance Zierlein of NFL.com wrote in Darnold’s draft profile: “There is no throw he fears…Naturally accurate with tight spirals. Has arm talent to uncork it quickly. He runs with it and swings passes, giving them time to operate. Has speed, timing and accuracy to control depth.
All these qualities come together with the Vikings this year.
Entering Week 13, Darnold ranks third in the NFL in PFF’s big throw metric (25), which tracks high-difficulty passes, mostly downfield. The only guys ahead of him are Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, who each have one more than Darnold.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell has taken advantage of Darnold’s ability to throw deep. The 27-year-old quarterback has the fourth-deepest average depth of target and 36.9% of his passes go at least 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Darnold ranks second in completion percentage on throws over 20 yards and 13th on passes of 10-19 yards, with the second-longest throws in that area.
Darnold has always had this type of arm, but has never had this type of success throwing deep. In 2021, he only connected on 27% of deep balls.
Why does it work so well now?
Having a cannon arm is undoubtedly a physical attribute, but there are many more elements to completing passes with a cannon arm. Eyes, timing, opportunities.
“I think they’re things you have to learn through experience, just seeing different defenses and understanding if someone falls into that zone, what kind of coverage it is, and maybe they’re a little softer at the back than I might be. have the time and maybe have the space to just put one over him and do something about it,” Darnold said.
Darnold explained that getting work against Brian Flores’ defense all summer helped him better identify coverages after the snap and understand where he could throw the ball.
“You don’t necessarily know exactly what coverage they’re going to fall into, but you just have to throw into certain windows and throw to spots,” Darnold said.
The throw to Addison was an example of putting the ball in a window, which he practiced many times and trusted the receiver to be there.
“Sometimes, whether it’s Josh Metellus or Harry (Harrison Smith) trying to get under that bench route (the route Addison ran)… being able to make those throws during the offseason has helped me a lot with our timing and our rhythm. ”
Having receivers who can run routes with precision and engage in traffic with high difficulty plays into Darnold maximizing his arm talent. When targeting Jefferson more than 10 yards down the field, he is 35-for-54 with 792 yards. That statistic becomes even more remarkable when you consider that opponents focus their game plans so heavily on Jefferson. And if he can’t get to Jefferson, Addison is 18-for-34 with 471 yards when the ball travels more than 10 yards in the air along the line of scrimmage.
“To fit those throws into the tight windows and just be able to execute those deep throws and get to the top of the defense, those are things that the defense has to respect,” Jefferson said. “There were numerous times where we went over the top and made some long throws – YES (Jordan Addison) took the top off a lot – during the season. We feel like the whole playbook is open just by being able to throw it all over the field.”
How does Darnold’s arm actually open the playbook?
Phillips said it changes the dynamic with the types of downfield routes they can put into a game plan.
“When you know he can make all the throws you put out there, you can get creative,” he said. “As long as you can protect it, you can try doing three moves and doing all the fun things.”
O’Connell admitted that sometimes he has to keep the pass protection part in mind — there’s still a pass rush coming to get Darnold.
“I think sometimes you have to watch yourself because you almost get to a point where you think of course he’s going to be able to make that throw,” O’Connell said. “Of course he’ll be able to make that throw. There are other factors at play like protection and the wallet needs to give time to express some of these things.
The Vikings’ O-line plays a huge role in Darnold being able to maximize his howitzer. He averages 3.1 seconds from snap to throw, third-longest in the NFL. PFF ranks the Vikings line fourth in pass blocking. He’s never had that before. In 2021, Carolina ranked 28th by PFF in pass blocking. The Jets were 31st, 28th and 22nd in his years starting in New York.
It helps that Darnold doesn’t need a perfect pocket. On his 69-yard completion to Addison against Chicago, he had no room to step into his throw and still sent it at full speed 25 yards downfield into Addison’s hands. That game also needed time to develop. Darnold can also wait for routes downfield to open up a little longer than other QBs.
“There are guys in this league who are extremely accurate, but if they get moving a little bit and can’t throw in time, that route down the field is gone. It’s dead,” Phillips said. “So Sam still has that power through his arm to maybe be able to slide, maybe one snap later, and make that same throw down the field.”
The way PFF tracks big throws is usually related to the distance the ball has traveled. Sixteen of his 25 BTTs have gone 20-plus yards, but O’Connell isn’t just looking at Darnold’s arm talent through that lens. He used the example of finding weaknesses underneath against the Cardinals and Darnold, who could zip the football between defenders or put it in spots where his receiver could get back to the ball.
“As the game went on, we figured out where the gaps in the coverage might be,” O’Connell said. “Sometimes it was a moving route through that area. Sometimes it was our receivers doing a great job getting back to the football through the zones, and then Sam would anticipate those windows and then have the opportunity to drive the football…there were countless examples.
Even the winning play, a simple short pass to Jones, had to be on the money to get him running to the end zone.
“(The throw was) one foot in front of Aaron (Jones)’s digits,” O’Connell said. “Aaron makes a great catch and runs into the end zone. Sometimes you can take for granted – even when I mention the plays – just the pitching and catching value of what Sam has brought this year, and then the plays and the rapport he has with the guys catching the football are a lot of fun to watch, just slowly. build and build.”
For the past three weeks, Darnold has been PFF’s No. 1 quarterback overall. The slow build-up process appears to be paying off as the 10-2 Vikings face an important stretch in the race for playoff position.
When the season started, they may have wanted to ease their new quarterback into the scheme, try to play run-first and make things as easy on Darnold as possible. But now, in football’s best division and in the thick of the playoff race, the Vikings know they’ll go as far as Darnold’s big arm can take them.
“We’re at the point where our guys are expected to go out and make enough plays in the passing game to win the game,” O’Connell said.
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