Steelers and Sam Darnold

I think its a "fumbles" vs. "fumbles lost" thing... Plus the QB is credited with fumbles for snap exchanges. We had something like that last year when we were talking about Fields. People kept saying "oh, well he fumbled 5 times"... like no, he lost one fumble and Zach Frazier dirted two snaps and snapped a shotgun snap too early when the QB wasn't looking for the ball.

 

What are you going to do when you can't blame everything on Tomlin anymore?

 

Without going through 5 pages, is the argument in this thread that if the Steelers would have signed the 2026 SB winning QB then they would also have been SB contenders? If so, that's the dumbest possible takeaway from the Seahawks win.

How about this...The Seahawks just rejected the narrative that this is a Franchise QB and offense driven league and there are only two types of teams - those with franchise QBs who can compete for the SB, and those still looking. Both teams were defense dominant. Darnold has shown that a QB can be the product of his team - a bust on an awful Jets team, a solid QB on a good Minny team, and a SB winner on a very good team.

 

This. Seattle system had Geno Smith looking pretty good. I don’t think Sam could have done much better than what Aaron did against Houston. There were no receivers that were open, running game was ****. Offense would be designed to minimize using middle of field. Those outs to Gainwell would result in loss of yards. Darnhold’s deep ball isn’t special. It was Seattle’s defense that gave him multiple possessions with good field position. They had a decent running game. Good play design etc. Bottom line… Ben couldn’t win with Tomlin in last decade. I doubt Darnold would do better.

 

I thought he could have been a Ben when he came out of USC. Admittedly I didn't see any of his games last year but I wasn't impressed with him yesterday. It reminded me of Ben in our first Super Bowl which he played basically like crap but Darnold isn't a 2nd year player. Yesterday showed me I think we made the right choice to seek a qb elsewhere.

 

Now we have MR and a 6th round pic that has yet to play a down in the NFL and possibly an even older AR returning to round out the Qb room. Clearly question marks for the Qb position with an owner itching to “be in contention”

if we had signed Darnold were probably coming off a playoff run, (have a better chance of getting past the first round), have a solid starter in Darnold, MR and Howard with a chance to really fill the holes on defense and WR. And can wait patiently for the right draftee to draft or trade up for to become our next franchise Qb, while were a viable playoff team.

i know why we went after AR, it was just a cheap short term hail mary last chance playoff run for MT. But now i think we may have to suffer a rough season or two before we can start to get better

 

He played great. I don't have angst at giving Rogers a shot though.

 

It's all a matter of opinion of course, but put ANY receiver you choose on this team, and I believe they are still one and done in the playoffs.

 

I think they also showed the importance of drafting well (something we've not been good at recently).

They have a significant amount of good players on rookie deals.

We may have drafted better in the last two years or so, but the end of Colbert's term really set this team back. I think because we focused hard on trying to hold on to the idea that we could still be competitive at the end of Ben's career instead of embracing a rebuild. And we're still in that mode...which I think is only extending the purgatory we're currently in.

 

I think Steelers need another legit wide receiver and help on the OL than bring in slim picking at Qb free agency. People keep talking about Willis, but he was trash at Tennessee. Rudolph beat him easily for #2 job in Tennessee and it was not close. He had 1.5 good games in 2025 .Heck, Rudolph, Duck, Dobbs have all had a good game. Willis is 6 ft tall and that is short for a qb. He runs around a bit because he cannot see over OL. As a result timing of plays isn’t there. You can never be consistently accurate if you are moving and throwing to a moving target. The degree of difficulty rises exponentially based on pure physics. You have a shorter and slower Kordell with Willis. Pass.

 

You are going to have to wait until someone gives him iPad time so he can respond