Dr. Octopus said:
With 2 6’3” WRs with 4.3 speed on the outside, Crowder, Herndon and Griffin underneath, Bell in the backfield and a much improved o-line this is the year Darnold has to take a huge step forward into a star franchise QB. There’s no more excuses for him. Put up or get out time.
I don't know. It looks decent on paper, but: Mims is a raw rookie. I'm not sure how well he will do in his rookie year. Herndon is always hurt going back to his college days. Griffin filled in nicely last year, but he also has an injury history. I'm high on Perriman, but he's not exactly proven either. I'll give Bell a pass for last year due to coming back from a year off and our o-line being crap. Our o-line is completely new. There is a LOT OF RISK here.
It was interesting to see how JD drafted this week. He addressed our needs and added important depth. He helped both our offense and defense. You can tell that he's trying to build the team properly and with a long term view. I still wish that he would have added another receiving weapon. I was hoping to get someone like Gibson, but Washington snatched him.
It's great that we addressed the o-line. It should be a nice improvement from last season, but it's going to take time for a new o-line to gel and we won't have much training camp for that to happen in addition to working in a raw rookie WR and Perriman who is new to the offense. I don't think we're at a point where we say that Darnold has no excuses. Maybe next year we'll add more weapons for him and that will be his true time to put up or get out.
Speaking of weapons, look at how other teams have supported their franchise or potential franchise QBs:
Drew Locke now has Sutton, Jeudy, Fant, and Hamler.
Josh Allen has Diggs, John Brown, Beasley, and they added 2 WRs and a RB.
Burrow already had weapons and they added Tee Higgins.
Lamar Jackson got M. Brown last year, a couple of good TEs, and RBs, another couple of young WRs, plus they just added 2 more WRs and a RB.
The list goes on. It just shows you how terrible Maccagnan was. We had a potential franchise QB, but gave him no weapons or o-line. Shameful. At least we're on the right path now. It just might take longer than a year.