I want to start this column with a couple of well-known and well-used phrases. Honesty is the best policy - Sam Darnold would disagree. Surround yourself with good people - Sam Darnold would definitely agree with that one.
Chosen third overall in the 2018 NFL draft, there were such high expectations of Darnold coming out of USC and he wasn't ready for the bright lights of New York City. He joined a poor New York Jets team and struggled by his own admission.
He had issues in those early years in New York, and of course there was a famous game against the New England Patriots, masterminded by the great Bill Belichick, where Darnold said he was "seeing ghosts". He was mic'd up on an NFL sideline - it's so hard to get a label off you in pro football once one is slapped on your back.
The belief and perception of Darnold at that time was that it was all too much for him. He went off to the Carolina Panthers and played ok at times, but really didn't do anything there. And so it felt like he was washed up when he joined the San Francisco 49ers as a backup quarterback in 2023.
To me that is where it changed. He got with one of the best people when it comes to quarterbacks and that is Kyle Shanahan. As Darnold sat behind Brock Purdy he was able to learn, re-learn the quarterback position and have another football education, if you will.
He grew in confidence, he grew in knowledge, and by the time he got to the Minnesota Vikings, where he was supposed to back up J.J. McCarthy, he was ready to explode back into our NFL lives.
In the 2024 season he threw for a career high 4,319 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. I met Darnold during that season in the locker room in Minneapolis and he was in command, he was confident, he had grown, he had changed.
I saw him the day after the game I attended against the San Francisco 49ers, a game in which he delivered some incredible passes. There was a 97-yard touchdown to Justin Jefferson and some absolute strikes at the end of that game to storm away to victory against the 49ers.
I watched how he walked around the facility in Minneapolis at breakfast the next morning among the players. He was every bit the franchise quarterback. He was confident, he was assured, he was so different from the quarterback we saw in New York.
Now, it didn't end brilliantly in Minnesota. He struggled in the final regular-season game against Detroit and the playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams, and the Vikings committed to McCarthy, so Darnold ends up in Seattle. But that year in Minneapolis was also about surrounding himself with good people.
Kevin O'Connell is a quarterback whisperer. He did wonders for Sam Darnold's game and we've seen the rewards of that this season. Seattle went 14-3, they're the No 1 seed in the NFC, Darnold was over 4,000 passing yards again with 25 touchdown passes.
He is every bit a top 10 quarterback in the NFL and I think it's different for him in Seattle now. He doesn't have to do it all on his own.
I think when I look back and think of the Vikings, yes, they have that Brian Flores defense, but their attack was powered by the pass last year. Darnold doesn't stay out of the way in Seattle, but he doesn't have to do everything. They have a good running game, they have a brutal, marauding defense that could power them all the way to the Super Bowl.
Darnold just needs to take care of the football and deliver consistently. He does more than that. It's probably unfair to suggest he's just a game manager. He's not. He can connect with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, he can be bold, he can attack downfield, he does all of that as well.
But if he can keep the mistakes out of his game, Seattle have a chance to go all the way, and what a story that would be for Darnold if he were to win a Super Bowl and set the stage for what could be a very fruitful next decade.
It's so hard to gauge sometimes. It feels like Darnold's been around the NFL scene, washed up and on the scrap heap, and now back in our spotlight, and he's only 28 years of age.
This is his fifth team and he's 28-years-old. He could dominate with the Seahawks for the next decade, and he has a chance now to write the most incredible story in the coming weeks.
He has already matched his regular-season wins of last year, and he's in good company doing that. He's the only quarterback in NFL history to record back-to-back 14-win regular seasons since Tom Brady.
Of course, Brady won seven Super Bowls. Can Darnold get the first? That would be something quite incredible.
Watch the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs live on Your Site from Saturday January 17-Sunday January 18.
