Ryan Clark has become a formerly respected football player who has turned into the worst kind of talking head. He makes outrageous statements in hopes of being heard. He needs to get paid, one assumes. But his recent comments about Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold just backfired.
After news broke that Darnold had hurt his oblique in practice ahead of his team's Divisional Round game against the San Francisco 49ers, Clark said that Seattle would have a "built-in excuse" for Darnold if he played poorly and the Seahawks lost. No worries needed.
Darnold left the game in the fourth quarter, but his team was up 41-6 at the time, and the quarterback had played efficiently and didn't put the ball in harm's way. He finished 12 of 17 passing for just 124 yards, but with a touchdown pass and no turnovers. He did what the Seahawks needed him to do.
Ryan Clark can now be quiet with his disrespect for Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks
The touchdown pass was a thing of beauty. He felt pressure, rolled to his left, and threw a dart to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the corner of the end zone. Darnold threw the ball where only JSN could get it, but with enough zip that the wide receiver could drag his feet just before going out of bounds.
Did the Seattle Seahawks need Sam Darnold to be extremely productive? No. He simply needed to execute offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's game plan, and he did so brilliantly. But many pundits, including Ryan Clark, appeared to doubt that Darnold could do that in a meaningful game.
Seattle will next play in the NFC Championship game against either the Chicago Bears or Los Angeles Rams, and Seattle's QB1 very well might be needed to have a highly productive game. Doubts are logical that he can do that because the same doubts would be there for any quarterback.
But what is certain is that Sam Darnold has stopped seeing ghosts and is ready to lead an offense to a deep playoff run. That might even include the Super Bowl. The Seattle Seahawks and Darnold cannot be discounted at this point.