Bruce Arians praises Jason Darden

[Coach Andy Mac]

 

[Mean Green 93-98]

Arians might have some praise for Jaelon, but the article is pretty negative overall.

[Wag Tag]

Watching that game I was hoping Darden could of done something awesome. Didn’t see anything that stood out on the returns or at receiver. Instead of deep balls I wish they would of gotten him something short and see how he does in space. 

[akriesman]

The comments on Darden were brutal.   Poor kid is getting some fan backlash.

[UNT Texas Hooligan]

The article and comments on Darden aren't good at all. Really hope he can turn it around

[ADLER]

I find the comments to not be basketball related at all.

[MEEN2018]

As a die-hard Bucs fan and UNT alum, I can tell you first hand that Darden has had a pretty terrible season. He hasn’t been used much on offense due to depth and bc it is fairly clear he doesn’t have a good understanding of the playbook yet. Even on one of his best offensive plays of the year, it was an endaround handoff that TB12 and all the skill players had to yell at Darden and gesture for him to go in motion and he looked like he had no idea what was going on. He has also run pretty lazy routes when he does get to play WR. Almost everytime he touches the ball he falls down before getting tackled and has not had much success as a returner.

The Bucs have a complex offense with lots of option routes, and he has clearly struggled to transition to it. He also has definitely struggled with his size as he can’t just win with his speed like he did at UNT and has had a lot of trouble separating and lack of strength on the outside. Luckily he will still be around until next season due to his draft status, so he still has some time to improve. However, the start of his NFL career has been about as bad as it could be. Part of it is just a bad fit in the Bucs offense as their slot receivers are used as run blockers and are usually bigger (think Larry Fitzgerald) so he is strictly an outside WR. Still holding out Hope and obviously rooting for him to succeed more than anyone, but it has not been promising.