SAN JOSE, CA – “I love Sam Darnold.”
It was a simple, explicit message adorning the T-shirt worn by Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp on Thursday, the final day he and his teammates met with reporters in the lead-up to Super Bowl 60.
“I’m a fan of our quarterback,” said Kupp. “Pretty self-explanatory.”
And, seemingly, a pretty universal sentiment – even if it’s been expressed in a variety of ways.
If, like me, you don’t have a rooting interest in Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and Darnold’s Seahawks, he sure seems like a worthy guy to pull for − and that’s no knock against coach Mike Vrabel, convivial QB Drake Maye or an edition of the Pats well removed from Bill Belichick’s Evil Empire dynasty.
But Darnold’s teammates paint a picture of a resilient guy whose overcome adversity with class and a smile.
Seattle linebacker Ernest Jones IV famously resorted to an F-bomb while defending Darnold following a four-interception game to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 11, which also happens to be the Seahawks’ most recent loss.
“You don’t go too far without a good quarterback, and Sam’s been the right piece,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports this week. “I think that’s carried us over the hump.”
Yet colorful language still seems to emerge when anyone suggests Darnold, a Pro Bowler the past two seasons, might be Seattle’s weak link.
“We don’t read into that,” Seahawks tight end AJ Barner told USA TODAY Sports, “we know it’s all (b.s.), to be honest with you. He shows up to play, and we follow his lead.”
And, by nearly every account, that’s what Seattle players and coaches have done from the minute Darnold arrived after signing a three-year, $100.5 million deal during free agency last March.
“I think when you saw him show up and just treat everybody really well, all about football, serious about his business but not taking himself too seriously, great worker – and then it’s like, OK, that’s how he is. And then he’s doing that every day of the week, and then the next week and the next week. You learn to rely on that person and (say), ‘I like who this guy is, and he’s the same guy every day,’” Seahawks special teams coach Jay Harbaugh told USA TODAY Sports.
“It’s a great thing. Season comes, and he plays well. Bad practice, same guy. Good practice, same guy. Good game, bad game, same guy. It’s a neat thing, that stability, the consistency – guys gravitate towards people like that.
“He’s been fantastic, and we’re really thankful to have him.”
The CliffsNotes version of his NFL journey, if you’re somehow unfamiliar with it at this point: Darnold, a USC product, was the No. 3 overall pick of the 2018 draft by the New York Jets, who gave up on him after three seasons – after they provided him little help on the field or a supportive infrastructure away from it – starting a stretch where he played for five teams in six seasons … but blossomed over the past two years for the Minnesota Vikings and Seahawks, who signed him to replace jettisoned QB1 Geno Smith.
Got it?
“What he’s done is special,” said Kupp, the Super Bowl MVP four years ago, when he was with the Rams. “Find me another player – another quarterback specifically – who’s had the start of a career like he has, to be counted out like he has, and then be able to come back and do what he’s done the last couple years. I mean, the mental fortitude to overcome all these people that said, ‘You can’t do it anymore,’ – that’s a very difficult thing to do.”
Darnold has left a fascinating NFL trail.
Jets GM Joe Douglas traded the quarterback, whom he didn’t draft, to the Carolina Panthers in 2021. Douglas was eventually fired. Panthers GM Scott Fitterer, who acquired Darnold, didn’t re-sign him after his rookie contract expired following the 2022 season. Fitterer was eventually fired. Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who signed Darnold prior to the 2024 season and watched him lead Minnesota to a 14-3 record, didn’t even bother to use the franchise tag on him last spring and at least give the Vikes some options. Adofo-Mensah was fired Jan. 30.
What did they all miss?
Darnold was certainly consistently inconsistent on the field with the Jets and Panthers, though neither of those teams had much in the way of assets around him, whether players or top-tier coaches.
“I’ve always believed in myself, and I’ve always had confidence in myself to do my job. And I learned,” Darnold said this week, “I learned a ton from the mistakes that I made early on in my career, and I feel like that kind of mindset has gotten me to this point.”
And despite the early ups and downs in terms of his performance, ask anyone, and the image of a very consistent person takes shape.
“He’s the same person every single day, and that’s awesome,” Seahawks safety Ty Okada told USA TODAY Sports. “You want that out of your leader, your quarterback. Nothing phases him. He’s just a great all-around person, teammate, leader in the locker room.”
And though Okada has only been Darnold’s teammate for one season, the quarterback’s personal pattern extends back for years.
Leonard Williams, who’s flourished as a Pro Bowl defensive lineman since coming to Seattle in 2023, was also a first-round pick of the Jets – three years before Darnold. They also briefly overlapped at USC.
“Even then, I remember him just being a great guy, great teammate, a great leader, a professional. I’ve seen that only progress over time,” Williams told USA TODAY Sports. “Now that he’s here, he’s just the ultimate teammate, the ultimate leader – just so proud to have him on my team. I’m definitely proud of him because I’ve seen that in him always.
“Anyone will make testaments to his character.”
Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu and Darnold were USC teammates for three seasons before both were drafted in 2018, Nwosu in the second round by the Los Angeles Chargers.
“Sam’s the same guy he is now that he was then – always looking to the positive, always looking to get better, always looking to the future,” Nwosu told USA TODAY Sports. “That’s one thing I respect about Sam a lot.”
Nwosu also characterized Darnold as “hard-nosed” and “all about ball” but also as a “jokester.” (He’s typically found time to rib reporters and teammates during his news conferences in recent weeks.) Nwosu is grateful they reunited in the Pacific Northwest after each struggled early in their NFL careers.
“Seattle gave us new life,” he said.
However Darnold’s rebirth may have truly begun in 2023, the lone season he spent as a backup with the San Francisco 49ers.
“It was a great experience for me and something that was, I think, crucial to me just growing as a player,” Darnold said of his year with the Niners.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan gave him a fresh education on offensive schemes but also new strategies for attacking defenses and coverages. Darnold got to know assistant Klint Kubiak, now his offensive coordinator and a key advocate for bringing him to Seattle. And there was even a Super Bowl dry run that season as he watched QB1 Brock Purdy handle the media maelstrom and game preparations ahead of what would be an overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 58 at Las Vegas.
“I try to do the best that I can in whatever role that is throughout my career,” said Darnold, who always strove to help Purdy while giving his San Francisco teammates good looks in practice. Ironically, he might get crowned on the 49ers’ home field at Levi’s Stadium.
“I’ve just always done whatever I could to help the team – and not only help the team, but help my teammates, help my family, all my friends in any way that I possibly could,’ Darnold continued. ‘Just try to be a good person – I think at the end of the day, like that’s all we can all do every single day, and that’s what I aspire to do every day.”
It’s an approach Darnold says was instilled by his parents, whom he calls his idols. His father, Mike, a plumber, would wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. every morning before going to work in order to be home in time to play with Sam and his sister, a volleyball player, and attend their practices and games.
“I’m very internally motivated,” Darnold said this week, feeling his one-day-at-a-time approach has served him well through the ups and downs of the NFL. “I know that I’m gonna push myself harder than any external force could ever push me. That goes back to (whom) my parents raised me to be.
“I don’t think this would be possible without the bumps that I went through early on in my career.”
And now? Darnold sure looks like a lot like the quarterback the Jets hoped they were getting. Hardly a weak link, he passed for five touchdowns and more than 600 yards in what proved to be two season-defining wins over the Rams, including in the NFC championship game, following that Week 11 flop in LA.
“He really saved us,” said Williams, noting that a team vaunted for its defense surrendered 64 points to the Rams in Seattle’s two late-season defeats of them.
Darnold’s 122.4 passer rating is far and away the league’s best in this postseason. Doesn’t sound like a guy the Patriots should expect will implode.
“Sam’s just been so resilient,” said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald. “He’s so steadfast in his approach. I think he’s confident in who he is. I think he understands how much his team believes in him and has his back. Just keeping firing away, man. Keep being you. Go to the next play. He’s the same guy after he has a perfect passer rating, and he’s not strutting around like he just solved all the world’s problems compared to a game where maybe we didn’t execute as well – so that’s what you appreciate about him.
“He’s just real, that’s who he is.”