RENTON, Wash. – When the story of Sam Darnold’s quarterbacking career is told, most focus on the beginning or the present.
The beginning being the awful three seasons in New York with the Jets where he looked like the latest first-round bust who would eventually wash out of the league.
And the present as the quarterback of the Seahawks, already headed for the playoffs with the chance at winning the NFC West and claiming the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC with two games remaining.
Not often talked about is the middle and the transition seasons for Darnold when he was traded, benched, beat out for a starting role and eventually started the incremental steps into the quarterback he is today.
Most of that evolution for Darnold as a quarterback started in Carolina, the place the Seahawks will visit Sunday.
“For me it was just another experience that has kind of paved the way for who I am and kind of what I’ve become,” Darnold said this week.
The stakes around Darnold’s return to Carolina couldn’t be much higher for both teams.
For the Seahawks, it’s keeping control of their path toward home-field advantage in the playoffs, and they could claim the division title if the Rams and 49ers were to lose.
For the Panthers, it’s keeping control of the NFC South. Because of his past with Carolina, Darnold is well aware of how starved the Panthers are for the chance in front of them. Carolina hasn’t made the playoffs since 2017, tied for the longest playoff drought in the NFC along with Atlanta.
A victory over the Seahawks plus a defeat by Tampa Bay in Miami would clinch the NFC South for the Panthers.
And for Darnold, there’s a lot at stake individually, in terms of his place in the NFL record book and the deposits into his bank account.
As for the financial aspect, Darnold is closing in on incentives that could provide him another $2 million for this season, as noted by Over The Cap this week. Over the final two games, Darnold needs around 300 total yards passing, four touchdown tosses, a slight increase in his completion percentage and manage to keep his season passer rating at 100.0 or above to have each of those four incentives kick in at $500,000 each.
And from the historical perspective, a victory Sunday – or in Week 18 – would enter him into unprecedented NFL history. Only four quarterbacks have led a team to 13 victories in consecutive seasons: Aaron Rodgers (Packers 2019-21), Peyton Manning (Broncos 2012-13), Tom Brady (Patriots 2003-04; 2010-11) and Brett Favre (Packers 1996-97).
Darnold has a chance to join that list and would be the first to do it with different teams after leading the Vikings to a 13-4 record last season.
It’s all part of a final six weeks of this season that have been, or will be, a journey through some of the chapters and storylines that have defined Darnold’s career – without his stint in New York.
It began last month when he faced the Vikings, the team with which his career was revived a year ago. Darnold arrived expecting to be a backup to a rookie, but was thrust into the starting role and became one of the feel-good stories in the NFL in 2024.
Darnold’s tour continued a week ago Thursday. Thanks to some fourth-quarter and overtime magic, he finally got the better of the Rams, the team that over the past two seasons had overwhelmed him in a wash of sacks last season in the playoffs then forced him into four interceptions when they played in November.
And it will continue next week for Darnold with a season finale against the 49ers that could be among the most important regular-season games in Seahawks history with potentially a division title and top seed on the line. San Francisco is the place where his career took a turn in 2023 as a backup to Brock Purdy.
Sandwiched in between the games against NFC West foes is this week and a trip back to the place that served as the second chapter to Darnold’s NFL journey.
“He’s continued to improve throughout his career. And I think the players that played 10-plus years at that position, they just keep getting better. They keep having a better feel for the game,” said Seahawks offensive coordinator Klink Kubiak, who first worked with Darnold in San Francisco the season after his time in Carolina ended. “And I think Sam has just evolved mentally. He’s always been a good athlete, but I think mentally, coming back from San Francisco to here, he’s really impressive. He’s grown there a lot.”
For those who are unaware of Darnold’s path, his stop in Carolina was intended to be a restart. The Panthers sent a trio of draft choices to the Jets to acquire Darnold and extricate him from the difficulties he faced during his first three seasons in New York.
The thinking was Carolina could be a fresh start. He was given the chance to be a starter after Carolina opted to move on from Teddy Bridgewater in the hope that what made Darnold the No. 3 overall choice in the 2018 draft would finally emerge with the Panthers.
To be fair, it started pretty well. The Panthers won their first three games with Darnold under center and he threw for 300 yards in three of his first four starts. Then it spiraled with losses in five of six games as Darnold threw two touchdowns and eight interceptions, and was capped by a fractured shoulder blade suffered in a defeat against New England that cost Darnold five games on injured reserve. Darnold returned for the final three games, but it was the conclusion to a 5-12 season for the Panthers.
“I think that first year, I learned a lot about myself just going through adversity and learning that way,” Darnold said.
The following year, Darnold was locked into a backup role to begin with. Carolina wasn’t convinced by what it saw from Darnold in his first season, so the big offseason acquisition by the Panthers was bringing in Baker Mayfield from Cleveland.
Mayfield was handed the starting reins, but it was a tumultuous season at the position for the franchise. Carolina started 1-4 and Mayfield suffered a high-ankle sprain in Week 5, but Darnold was still recovering from a high-ankle sprain he suffered in Carolina’s preseason finale.
So the next three games, while Mayfield was out, P.J. Walker was the starting quarterback.
It wasn’t until Week 12 that Darnold finally saw the field. And Darnold played pretty well. The Panthers won four of their final six games – including a victory over the Seahawks at Lumen Field – and he had nine total touchdowns passing and rushing during that span. His numbers over that final stretch of his Panthers career don’t look that much different from what he’s done with the Vikings last year and the Seahawks this season.
As Darnold said this week, the end of his time in Carolina helped launch what came next.
“That second year battled through an injury throughout the first half of the season. Then came out on the other side and was able to play some pretty good football toward the end of that season,” Darnold said. “I feel like that kind of gave me momentum going into that next year. So I learned a lot of good football in that last year in Carolina especially.”