Sam Darnold's meteoric QB ranking rise continued despite 3 turnovers

The Seattle Seahawks took a gamble last offseason, moving on from Geno Smith by trading him to the Las Vegas Raiders. They then signed veteran Sam Darnold to a three-year deal.

Darnold has been playing at an MVP-level this season as he has led the Seahawks to being one of the best offenses in the league. Every week, Seattle’s offense is explosive from the start of the game. That was evident in the Seahawks’ dominating 44-22 win at home over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10.

Darnold had most of his passes completed in the first half as the Seahawks took a 38-7 lead at halftime. Darnold completed 10-of-12 for 178 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a QBR of 82.3. The big concerns that the Seahawks encountered were the three turnovers, with two in the second half.

Those turnovers didn’t seem to bother The Athletic's Jeff Howe, as he gave his quarterback rankings going into Week 11. Darnold rose one spot from No. 9 to No. 8. The one quarterback who fell below Darnold in the quarterback rankings this week is Green Bay Packers’ Jordan Love.

Darnold didn’t have much impact in the second half and had some turnovers that went on his stats sheet. In reality, the three turnovers weren’t exactly on him.

The first turnover came late in the second quarter when the Seahawks had to replace an injured Jalen Sundell with Olusegun Oluwatimi. His first play in the game, Oluwatimi’s snap was not smooth as Darnold couldn’t get the loose ball, resulting in a turnover.

The second turnover came in the first plays of the third quarter. Seattle’s play-action pass didn’t fool the Cardinals’ defense as tight end A.J. Barner was bull-rushed right into Darnold’s throwing path, resulting in the ball being tipped, with the high ball was caught by a Cardinals cornerback.

On the following drive, right tackle Abraham Lucas was bull rushed and beaten by Cardinals defensive end Josh Sweat as he then swatted the ball out of Darnold’s possession. This resulted in the third turnover and made Seattle stick mostly to the ground game.

Outside of some turnovers at various points throughout the season, Darnold has been excellent as the Seahawks’ signal-caller. Darnold has completed 162-of-228 of his passes for 2,262 yards (seventh in the league), 17 touchdowns, six interceptions, and a QBR of 77.6 (first in the league).

He has been instrumental in helping Jaxon Smith-Njigba become the top wide receiver in the league. The Seahawks are incredibly efficient in multiple different passing schemes, and they are only going to get better as the running game continues to progress.

The Seahawks’ gamble on Darnold continues to pay off as he is a huge reason why the team is in serious consideration for a Super Bowl title.

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