Big Cat Country
As the Jacksonville Jaguars prepare to host the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6, we sat down with John Gilbert of Field Gulls to learn more about the opposing side.
Question 1: From the outside looking in, it seems that Sam Darnold is playing even better than he did last year. Has he exceeded expectations in Seattle so far? Is there any part of his game you’d like to see improve?
Absolutely zero doubt that Darnold is playing out of his mind so far this season. Klint Kubiak has schemed the offense near perfectly to Darnold’s strengths, and with both Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp able to get open almost on demand, it’s been a recipe for success. Add in a sprinkling of just enough production from AJ Barner and Tory Horton, and the production of the offense has been welcome after the struggles of 2024.
With that said, he’s played so well that regressing to the mean would not be a surprise. That doesn’t mean he’s going to all of a sudden revert back to his level of performance with the Jets, just that it’s improbable that he will be able to continue to produce at the level he has for the remainder of the season. There certainly won’t be any complaints if he does, just that it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if he eventually has a game that fans would like to forget.
As far as an area where fans would like to see him improve, a lot of the haters who were upset with the decisions to trade Geno Smith and sign Darnold have been more than happy to point out that the Seahawks two losses both came in games where the offense had the ball with a chance to take the lead, but Darnold turned it over. With that said, he was under pressure on both turnovers, and he wasn’t on the field when the opponent took the lead in either game, so exactly how much blame can one place on him for the failures of the offensive line and defense? At the end of the day he’s a 28-year old with immense physical talents, and hopefully there’s still a lot of upside for him and his performance in the coming years.
Question 2: Same question for the head coach — while it’s only his second season, has Mike Macdonald exceeded expectations so far? Is there anything glaring that he must improve upon?
There were certainly a lot of fans who questioned the decision of the team to move on from Pete Carroll after the 2023 season, but Macdonald has revitalized and rejuvenated the defense to the point where those voices have been silenced. Yes, the Bucs put up 38 points in Week 5, but that was in large part because of poor injury luck and half the defense, including the majority of the starting secondary not being on the field because of those injuries.
Macdonald...
