Sam Darnold sets record straight on his winding career path and how it unexpectedly ended with a Super Bowl trip with the Seahawks
Quarterback has had a unique trajectory in the NFL.
The Seattle Seahawks have never had a usual path at quarterback. A trade for Matt Hasselbeck, getting Russell Wilson in the third round, promoting Geno Smith from a backup to his career resurgence. It couldn’t be different in another Super Bowl trip.
Back in the offseason, the Seahawks got heavily criticized for trading Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders and signing Sam Darnold in free agency. The plan couldn’t have worked out better, and that’s one of the big reasons why Seattle reached the NFC title.
Sam Darnold’s special trajectory
Over the past few years, fans have seen more and more reclamation projects panning out. But Darnold is certainly an extreme example. A third overall pick in 2018, he bounced around the league until finding his long-term spot in Seattle — in a trajectory that included three starting experiences and a maturation process that rare quarterbacks have the opportunity to attempt to begin with.
“I would have loved to get drafted to New York and have that be my home for 20 years, but it just didn’t work out that way,” Darnold said during Super Bowl week. “Same thing in Carolina. San Francisco was a great place for me to learn. In Minnesota, I had an opportunity with really good players and really good coaches, to show — not people, but show myself what I could do on the football field, and I think people saw that.”
Darnold spent three years with the Jets, starting 38 games. He was traded to the Panthers and spent two seasons there, starting 17 games. In both instances, as a low-end starter despite his physical tools.
In 2023, he was a backup with the 49ers before a new chance to start with the Vikings on a short-term deal. Despite the Vikings’ willingness to sign him back in 2025, Darnold wanted a long-term path to be a starter. Even if his contract with the Seahawks doesn’t bring that much security, Darnold felt that with the people in the building.
“Seattle, just from the get-go, right when I got here, it felt like home,” Darnold added. “It feels like home and I’m so grateful to John [Schneider] and Mike [Macdonald] for believing in me, and all the people in that locker room believing in me. For me to be able to go out there and do nothing more than my job on every single play, that’s a very secure feeling as a quarterback.”
Darnold made $40 million in 2025. He’s slated to make $27.5 million in 2026 and $35.5 million in 2027 — without any guarantees left. But $15 million of his 2026 compensation becomes fully guaranteed in March, and it’s easy to see a scenario where the Seahawks find a way to reward him. But that’s a conversation for next week and beyond.
For now, Sam Darnold wants to prove his max value in Seattle — and make it clear that it’s possible to win a Super Bowl with him under center despite all the criticism he had to handle in the early stages of his NFL journey.
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