Before watching Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold play a single snap in the NFC playoffs, ESPN’s Ryan Clark is going to extreme lengths to question not only the QB’s abilities on the field, but also whether he is being honest about his injury status.
Darnold popped up on the Seahawks’ injury report on Thursday with a surprise oblique injury, which he told reporters kept him off the field for part of practice. The former Vikings signal-caller, however, said the chances that he misses Saturday’s game against San Francisco are “close to zero.”
Yet to open First Take on Friday, Clark questioned the legitimacy of the injury. The ESPN analyst speculated that Darnold could merely be laying the breadcrumbs to explain away his performance if he plays poorly.
“It sounds like the setup for an excuse,” Clark said.
“It sounds like the things that you say before a game when you don’t play well, when the throws aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Everybody can point back, ‘But you have to remember, he didn’t get those first-team reps and his oblique was tight on Thursday.’
“This is the biggest game in Sam Darnold’s career. This is another opportunity to exorcise some of those demons that finished the season along with him [last season]. And so if you are the Seattle Seahawks and Mike MacDonald’s team, you have to be extremely concerned about where Sam Darnold is, not only physically but mentally, entering into this game with the San Francisco 49ers.”
Of course, most Seahawks fans would agree that they are worried about Darnold’s mental state after he laid an egg for Minnesota in last year’s playoffs.
But Clark is assuming a lot to call Darnold’s sudden injury into question. First, the expectation off top that Darnold will play poorly on Saturday. Despite playing poorly for the Vikings late last season, Darnold just beat this same 49ers team two weeks ago, taking care of the ball and posting a 97.9 passer rating on the way to a win that clinched the No. 1 seed for Seattle.
Clark also seems to be insinuating that either Darnold is exaggerating the oblique injury even to his own training staff, or that the team is in on the charade — in which case, it would also have to believe he will play poorly and want to cover for him.
Football locker rooms are notoriously big on commitment and sacrifice. As a successful former defensive back and Super Bowl champion for a vaunted Steelers defense, Clark knows this as well as anyone.
If nothing else, the instinctive response from Clark to undermine Darnold’s seriousness as a football player in order to craft a take on the QB’s mysterious injury says a lot about what Clark thinks of the Seahawks’ signal-caller.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.