Stephen A. Smith on First Take Photo credit: ESPN

There are enough reasons to remain a Sam Darnold skeptic that Stephen A. Smith shouldn’t be throwing out bogus statistics.

Darnold going from being a placeholder to looking like a franchise quarterback is one of the bigger surprises of the NFL season. While he won’t win the NFL MVP, Darnold is at least making a late-season push to enter the conversation thanks in part to putting up some massive numbers in December.

Smith, however, appears to have missed those games.


“We’re talking about Sam Darnold, and again, he deserves credit; we know he’s had a stellar season,” Smith admitted to Molly Qerim, Booger McFarland, and Chris Russo Thursday morning on First Take. “The man hasn’t thrown for 300 yards since November 24th against Chicago.

“I mean, I’m just throwing it out there. Let’s not act like this is the second coming of Dan Marino, and we just see him flinging passes all over the place. I mean, you got (Justin) Jefferson, you got (Jordan) Addison…I’m just saying, can we pump the brakes…can we sit up there and at least have the mentality, let’s see? Everybody else got to show, how come he don’t have to show it? Let’s see.”

The problem is, Darnold is trying to show it and Smith just isn’t seeing it.

The man hasn’t thrown for 300 yards since Nov. 24 against Chicago?

Darnold passed for 347 yards, a career-best five touchdowns and no picks with a near-perfect quarterback rating against Atlanta on Dec. 8. And just this past weekend, Darnold threw for over 300 yards again, setting another career high with 377 yards in a win against the Green Bay Packers.

Smith has made bigger gaffes while attempting to talk football in his media career. But this is still notable because Darnold already gave his critics six seasons of material to question whether or not he should be trusted as a franchise quarterback. Don’t be like Stephen A. Smith and point to year seven, specifically the month of December in year seven, where Darnold set multiple career bests, as a means for skepticism.

[First Take]

About Brandon Contes

Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com