It’s been a long journey for new Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold to get to the position he’s in now.
After a breakout season with the Minnesota Vikings, Darnold reportedly agreed to a three-year deal worth $100.5 with the Seahawks on Monday.
Which version of Sam Darnold are the Seattle Seahawks getting?
Darnold’s resurgent 2024 campaign with the Vikings helped the former No. 3 overall pick change the narrative of being a draft bust, but his turnaround started before he arrived in Minnesota. It started to take shape a year prior when he spent a season as the backup signal-caller for the San Francisco 49ers.
During a conversation with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Tuesday, former NFL offensive lineman and longtime analyst Mark Schlereth detailed how Darnold improved his game and learned what it takes to run an NFL offense with the 49ers.
A rough start
To understand where Darnold was at when he joined San Francisco in 2023, you have to take a look at what happened during his first five seasons in the NFL.
The former USC star landed with the New York Jets in the draft, a franchise that’s struggled to develop quarterbacks for more than two decades. His first offensive coordinator was former Seahawks OC Jeremy Bates. Schlereth said Bates was trying to run an offense similar to what Peyton Manning did with the Indianapolis Colts.
“(San Francisco coach) Kyle Shanahan said to me, he goes, and I quote, ‘There’s one guy on the planet that can run the Peyton Manning offense, and that’s Peyton Manning,'” Schlereth said.
Calm, cool and collected.
Sam Darnold hits @JJettas2 DEEEEEP for 6.
📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/FsQMTn2d4z
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) December 8, 2024
He then spent two seasons in New York under head coach and play-caller Adam Gase, whose offenses finished near the bottom of the league in all five seasons he was an NFL head coach.
Related: How the Seattle Seahawks gained by replacing Geno Smith with Darnold
During his three years in New York, Darnold completed just 59.8% of his throws for 8,097 yards, 45 touchdowns and 39 interceptions.
“Instantly, he goes into a situation where he’s not going to have success, and so that falls apart,” Schlereth said.
Darnold went to another struggling franchise afterwards and spent two seasons with the Carolina Panthers. According to Schlereth, Darnold was in a rudimentary system for much of his time in Carolina.
“We’re in another collegiate system” Schlereth said. “So (Panthers head coach) Matt Rhule ends up getting fired, and Steve Wilks takes over and Ben McAdoo is the coordinator at that time. So it’s year four, about nine games in, before Sam Darnold was ever put in a progression-style offense.”
He ‘humbled himself’
After a difficult two-year stint in Carolina that saw Darnold lose his starting role after one season to Baker Mayfield, he went to San Francisco to learn under offensive guru Kyle Shanahan and be Brock Purdy’s backup in 2023. According to Schlereth, Darnold had offers from other teams that were worth more money and came with an opportunity to compete for a starting role.
“He said, ‘No, I want to come to San Francisco because I want to learn how to play offense. I want to learn NFL offense. I have not been given the opportunity,’” Schlereth said. “So he takes less money to back up Brock Purdy in San Francisco, and Brock told me, and I quote on this too, ‘He’s been invaluable in my development.’ The guy has been such a great teammate in just what he did to help Brock prepare.
“So here’s a guy that kind of humbled himself and said, ‘Man, I need to learn how to play this game.’”
Darnold Dimes 🎯
📺 #LACvsSF on KPIX
📱 NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4oaLh pic.twitter.com/T79018E09I
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) August 26, 2023
During his time with San Francisco, Darnold also worked under new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, too. Kubiak was San Francisco’s passing game coordinator. So there’s some familiarity for Darnold with the system Kubiak runs, which is also similar to what Darnold ran with the Vikings under head coach Kevin O’Connell last season.
“I love the system,” said Schlereth, who played under both Kubiak and Shanahan’s dads during his six seasons with the Denver Broncos. “And the other thing that’s nice about the system is that Sam Darnold, that’s what Sam Darnold played in when he was a backup in San Francisco and then went to Minnesota and played in that. So this would be the third year with the root of that system being the same.”
Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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