We suck. Our recipe for success is the worst in the North.

I do think that the surrounding cast (players & coaches) is partly responsible for a QB's success early on. Imagine of CJ Stroud was drafted into the mess that was the Carolina Panthers 2023 situation - he may not have had the level of success that he had in Houston under OC Bobby Slowik, a Shanahan disciple. And perhaps Bryce Young looks better in Houston under Slowik's guidance.

I think part of Sam's issue in 2018 was that he was relatively inexperienced and very young. He was only 20 yrs old when he was drafted by the Jets and only started 24 college games at USC by that point. In high school, he didn't have too many starts at QB, either: he was more of a basketball star and didn't start playing football until his Sophomore season and started out as a WR/LB. It was only when the starting QB went down in the SO season that he came in and played well. He missed most of his Junior yr w/ an injury so his Senior Year in high school was the only full year of playing QB before he was recruited into USC. And because he didn't start games at USC until an injury to the starting QB during his Year 2 season there, he really had only 2 full seasons as a starting QB in his high school & college career before he made the jump to the NFL - and that's simply not a great deal of experience.

JJ McCarthy, a QB prospect from Michigan who the Vikings appear very interested in for next month's Draft, is also a very young prospect - he turned 21 in January of this year and will be one of the youngest QB's in the NFL in 2024, and if he starts games, he'll probably be the youngest to start a game since Sam Darnold. He didn't start too many more games than Darnold in college - McCarthy started 28 to Darnold's 24 - but it's the high school level where the main difference is: Darnold only had 1 full season in high school as the starting QB (his Senior year), but McCarthy had 2 full seasons as a starter at Nazareth in Illinois, as well as another full season at IMG Academy in Florida. McCarthy had loads more experience as a starting QB by the time he stepped foot at Michigan than Darnold did when he got to USC.