I’m a huge proponent of avoiding an overreliance on box score stats to evaluate how well a player is performing. Standard statistics are severely lacking in context. That’s why I do my own grading of Sam Darnold’s performance each week – to mix in that essential context.
With that said, Darnold’s raw statistical production here in 2020 stands out from the crowd so blatantly that it has to be taken into account. It has not just been disappointing, shaky, or mediocre. It has been downright atrocious.
The most important factor at play is that we can trust the value of Darnold’s raw numbers since the Darnold that shows up on film looks just as bad as the Darnold on the league-wide statistical leaderboards.