It’s rare for a quarterback to win as many games as Sam Darnold did last year, only to become one of the offseason’s less celebrated signings.
Last year, Darnold led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record — tied with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles for second-most wins in the NFL — and posted career-best marks in passing yards, touchdowns and passer rating.
But after he struggled in both the Vikings’ final regular season game and their first-round playoff loss, Minnesota decided not to re-sign Darnold in the offseason, even though he finished 2024 with the sixth-best passer rating and fifth-most touchdown passes in the league.
Then, when Darnold signed a three-year, $105 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks — the 18th-highest average salary among signal callers — the move was met with a lukewarm response at best.
ESPN graded the signing as a B-, describing Darnold as a downgrade from previous quarterback Geno Smith. Pro Football Network was more critical, calling Darnold’s contract one of the worst in free agency.
Now, through five weeks of the 2025 season, Darnold not only is proving his critics wrong, but he has improved to the point that he has become one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
“We have a very special quarterback here,” Seahawks tight end AJ Barner told reporters Sunday. “And I think people are starting to find that out.”
Entering Week 6, Darnold is the highest-graded quarterback in the NFL (minimum 200 snaps), according to Pro Football Focus. He is ranked second in ESPN’s QBR, a metric for quarterbacks that also includes running plays and is adjusted for strength of opposing defenses.
Darnold is also fourth in expected points added per play, third in passer rating and seventh in touchdowns.
In Seattle’s 38-35 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 5, Darnold had a fantastic performance, albeit in defeat.
Playing his 2018 draft classmate (and former teammate and fellow castoff) Baker Mayfield, Darnold threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns. He led Seattle back from a two-score deficit to take the lead and even orchestrated a 99-yard go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, which included a touchdown pass on fourth down.
Even though Darnold ran into some bad luck on the Seahawks’ final drive — his pass bounced off a helmet into a defender’s arms for an interception — he earned the praise of his teammates and coaches.
“Sam played a tremendous football game,” Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald said. “I thought we were going to have a chance to win the game there at the end. What was it, a 99-yard drive, fourth down, extending plays. I thought Sam played tremendous.”
Receiver Tory Horton, who caught Darnold’s final touchdown of the day after he deftly evaded two pass rushers, said: “He has some magic up his sleeve. He’s always on top of his game. Just the way he moves in the pocket is very underrated. That’s stuff that we repped in practice. I threw my hand up and he made eye contact and we knew we had a play. He’s doing all he can out there.”
Darnold’s success is not only making the Seahawks look brilliant; it’s making a couple of other teams look foolish.
Smith, who posted three straight winning seasons as Seattle’s starter, is 1-4 with the Las Vegas Raiders and has already thrown nine interceptions.
The Vikings, meanwhile, are 3-2 and would need to go 11-1 the rest of the season to match Darnold’s win total.
They’ve also had subpar play at quarterback. Second-year player J.J. McCarthy started the team’s first two games and struggled, and he has been out the last three weeks with an injury. Backup Carson Wentz hasn’t been much better, ranking 26th in QBR.
Minnesota made an unprecedented decision to move on from Darnold. Since 1970, 97 teams have won 80% of their games in a single season, but only three didn’t bring back the same starting quarterback the next year, according to The Athletic.
The 2025 Vikings are the only one of the three who opted for a first-time starter over the previous season’s quarterback.
With the caveat that most of the season still has to be played — and Darnold will have to prove himself in much bigger moments — so far, that decision hasn’t paid off.
“Sam’s playing out of his mind right now,” Macdonald said after Darnold led a game-winning drive in Week 4. “You see him, he’s just such a cool customer. But he’s a guy on a mission. He’s so determined for us to be a great team and a great offense, and he’s doing a great job leading us.”
