We’re about to find out whether Sam Darnold was a one-year wonder
Sam Darnold is on his fifth NFL team in the past six years, but this time around things are vastly different.
The journeyman quarterback, still just 28 and coming off a season in Minnesota in which he flirted with an MVP award, landed as the starter in Seattle for considerable compensation as a free agent. It was another quirky layer to his unique football path, with Darnold still among the more polarizing quarterbacks in the game. Is he a late bloomer whose growth was immediately stunted by the hapless Jets or a one-year wonder who was the by-product of the perfect coach and a loaded roster?
For the first time in quite a while, Darnold enters an NFL season with serious expectations, as the Seahawks went an impressive 10-7 last season in Coach Mike Macdonald’s rookie campaign. They jettisoned another surprising mid-career revelation and former Jets “bust” Geno Smith to sign Darnold.
They clearly believe it’s an upgrade, but some around the NFL are a bit more skeptical and wonder whether new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has the chops to guide Darnold the way Vikings Coach Kevin O’Connell did. It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out, with the 2018 No. 3 overall pick back in the limelight following stops as a backup with the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers after losing his grip on the starting job in New York.
“I think they might regret it,” said one longtime NFC executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid violating NFL tampering rules. “Geno is a helluva player and I think he galvanized that locker room, too. Sam had a great season but you have to give a lot of that credit to O’Connell, and those [stinking] great players around him. He doesn’t have (wide receiver Justin) Jefferson and (tight end T.J.) Hockenson and (wide receiver Jordan) Addison anymore.”
One assistant coach on an NFC team that will face the Seahawks said: “I’m not sure that’s an upgrade for them. I’ll put it to you this way, I’m not exactly crying that they got rid of Geno and signed Sam Darnold. And Klint is pretty good, but he’s not (O’Connell) and it’s not exactly the same offense.”
Suffice to say, not all were converted by Darnold’s stupendous 2024 season, which bore out in a fairly tepid free agent market (Darnold’s deal is heavily front-loaded with nearly $55 million in guaranteed money). Darnold topped 4,300 passing yards last season, with 35 touchdowns to 12 interceptions (though he started to fade late) with a sparkling 102.5 rating. For his career, he has 98 touchdown passes and a whopping 68 picks and a rating of 83.9, which points to his vagabond status before last year’s surge. Darnold, whose inaccuracy and inconsistency led to a woeful career completion percentage of 59.7 before 2024, rose to 66.2% last year.
Could it be, that after spending time working with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco and O’Connell in Minnesota that Darnold is truly ready to ascend to an elite-level passer?
“Sam wasn’t put in a position to succeed with us,” said a Jets staffer who evaluated Darnold and spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about that process. “He had a good final five games with Jeremy Bates calling plays, but with (the hiring of) Adam Gase (as head coach) it was immediately going to fail.
“[Gase] expects everyone to be Peyton Manning and things weren’t catered to Sam and it wasn’t about doing whatever we could to make him comfortable and successful. Jeremy and [former backup] Josh McCown really helped him and it was simple reads and we relied on the run game, a lot of quick game and play action and keeping it safe. And you saw a lot of that stuff come back with [O’Connell] last year. But bringing in Adam, wanting him to be Peyton Manning, it was too much to put on a 21-year-old kid, especially in New York, and it tore him down psychologically.”
Despite the flashy free agent signing, Seattle’s offense needs to recalibrate after coordinator Ryan Grubb was fired after one season. “The guy calling the offense last year was way too pass happy – they had to know they [screwed] that up,” said a longtime NFC West advance scout. “You can’t sit back in empty and throw the ball every down.” Seattle ran the fifth-most plays out of an empty formation (in which the quarterback has no help in the backfield); Kubiak’s Saints offense ran the eighth most; O’Connell barely used it at all. The Seahawks should take note.
Balance must remain the key. Keeping Darnold from “seeing ghosts” as he pronounced early in his Jets career will be vital. Avoiding the proclivity to self-destruct with his decision-making is paramount.
If Darnold is ever going to stick somewhere for more than a year or two, now’s the time. The journeyman label can be hard to shake. He will be the first quarterback since 1950 to start for five teams before turning 29. If Darnold is not going to be a bounce-around quarterback, Seattle needs to become his home. He should benefit from having an above-average defense – perhaps superior – and one of the top home-field advantages in the NFL. But the creature comforts of playing in a dome are gone.
“This is four years in a row with a different play caller, so what is the ceiling if he’s hopping around every year to another guy?” the former Jets staffer said. “Is he a guy who hangs around another 10 years hopping around making decent money as a guy who can help get you through a season? Or does he settle down and you want to build around him and keep him in your program?”