SEATTLE — Who would have imagined that Sam Darnold would be the first USC quarterback to start in the Super Bowl?
Or that Darnold, taken third by the New York Jets in a 2018 NFL Draft in which Baker Mayfield was picked ahead of him and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson behind him, would be the first in that draft class to play for the Lombardi Trophy?
It’s happening. And it’s because Darnold played, if not a flawless game, a highly efficient one in Sunday’s 31-27 NFC championship game victory over the Rams: completing 25 of 36 passes for 346 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He wasn’t flustered, didn’t take needless chances and got the ball where it needed to be.
That last, in particular, stands out because of the way the Rams’ defense had treated him the last few times they had seen him, including an interception and nine sacks in last year’s playoff game against Minnesota, four interceptions in the first meeting with Seattle this season in Inglewood and two picks and four sacks in the December rematch in Seattle.
“I mean, 300-something yards, three touchdowns, no picks,” Seattle coach Mike Macdonald said after the game. “Every time they went and scored he came back, made some big-time throws on third down, two-minute drive, four-minute drive. Guy barely practiced all week. Just really happy for him. He deserves it. Just been a rock for us the whole year, so just really happy for him.”
That “barely practiced all week” comment? Darnold had been fighting through an oblique issue. But in two playoff games, last week’s rout of San Francisco and this victory over the Rams, he has completed 69.8% of his passes for 470 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. During the regular season he threw for 4,048 yards and 25 scores with 14 interceptions.
This is the continuation of an evolution that began last season in Minnesota, when Darnold, 28, played what some considered MVP-caliber quarterback – 4,319 yards, 66.2 completion percentage, 35 touchdowns to 12 interceptions and a 102.5 quarterback rating for the season – but was deemed expendable when the Vikings committed their future to former Michigan star J.J. McCarthy.
He signed a three-year, $100 million deal with the Seahawks, who were ready to move on from Geno Smith, and the performances of the two this season – Darnold getting his team to a Super Bowl, Smith helping get Pete Carroll fired after one year in Las Vegas – seem to have confirmed the wisdom of that choice from Seattle’s viewpoint.
Could we have seen all of this coming at USC? Probably.
Coming out of San Clemente High, Darnold played two seasons for Clay Helton. He passed for 3,086 yards and 31 touchdowns (to nine interceptions) as a freshman in 2016 – leading USC to nine straight wins when he took over after the team had started out 1-3 – and then posted 4,143 yards, best in the Pac-12, with 26 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions (also most in the conference) in 2017.
And maybe the 2017 Rose Bowl against Penn State was Darnold’s introduction to the nation: 33 for 53, 453 yards, five touchdowns and a fourth-quarter rally from a 49-37 deficit, including touchdown drives of 83 and 80 yards, before Matt Boermeester’s 46-yard field goal on the final play gave the Trojans a 52-49 victory. (Saquon Barkley, incidentally, was on the other side in that game, finishing with 249 yards from scrimmage, including 194 on the ground, and three touchdowns.)
“You play the game with no fear and he does,” Helton said then. “He does some things that people can’t do, so you let him do it.”
Darnold was the third pick in that star-studded 2018 draft, after Mayfield to Cleveland and Barkley to the New York Giants, and it’s probably safe to say that winding up with the Jets, a dysfunctional franchise then and now, did not enhance Darnold’s development. After three seasons in which the Jets went 4-12, 7-9 and 2-14, Darnold was sent to Carolina, where in his two-year stint he dealt with injuries and threw 16 interceptions in 18 games .
Next was a year in San Francisco, where he backed up Brock Purdy, was exposed to Kyle Shanahan’s offensive philosophy and bonded with passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak, who is now Seattle’s offensive coordinator. Minnesota took a chance and brought him aboard in 2024, and that season led to his migration to Seattle, though he still was seen as something of a punch line in many NFL circles.
“Everyone wants to make a narrative about this guy, but he’s been the same guy since he walked in the door,” Macdonald said. “You don’t want me writing the stories because I would not write the narratives out there. This guy is the man, and his teammates love him and he’s competitive as crap and he’s tough. He’s really talented and he’s a winner. That would be the story. So don’t let me write the story.”
Clearly, his teammates and coaches have his back, and vice versa.
“It’s great that I feel that support not with only their words but just with how everyone treats each other in the building,” Darnold said following Sunday’s game. “I’m just happy to be a part of this team, this group and this coaching staff.”
And now he is in the Super Bowl. An ESPN interviewer asked him following Sunday’s game if he would have believed it four years ago if someone had told him he’d eventually play in a Super Bowl. His response wasn’t about himself, which again might help explain why his teammates appreciate him the way they do.
“I’ve always believed in myself,” he said. “I’ve always believed in my teammates, my coaches. So it’s really just a one-day-at-a-time mindset. And I think with that mindset, we’re always going to continue to be solid. We’ll be solid no matter what we do in this life, whether we go to the Super Bowl or whether we don’t win as many games as we should. So it doesn’t really matter. We’re on to the Super Bowl, and I’m so excited to be doing this with this team.”
Can we say they’re fighting on?
jalexander@scng.com
