From draft bust to playoff challenger, Darnold finds redemption in Seattle, aiming for his crucial first postseason win.
Eight years ago, when the New York Jets used the third overall pick on Sam Darnold in the 2018 NFL Draft, the plan felt simple enough: franchise quarterback, playoff wins, stability at the most important position in sports.
Fast forward to today, and the reality is… less tidy.
Darnold will try to win his first career playoff game this afternoon, not in green, not in purple, but in navy and action green as the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks.
It’s his fifth NFL stop, his second straight season leading a 14-3 team, and the most important start of his career.
Football careers aren’t supposed to take this many scenic routes.
And yet, here Darnold is ... leading the NFC’s No. 1 seed into a divisional-round matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, with an opportunity that once felt like a guarantee and later felt impossible.
What makes this season wild is not just Seattle’s success, but how familiar it feels.
Last year, Darnold helped guide the Vikings to a 14-3 regular season as well, only to watch that momentum evaporate in a flat 27-9 playoff loss to the Rams.
It was his first postseason start, and it looked like it - hesitation, pressure, and the weight of expectations all crashing down at once.
Now comes the stat that feels like it was made up in a lab: Darnold and Tom Brady are the only quarterbacks in NFL history to post back-to-back 14-win regular seasons.
The difference, of course, is that Brady turned regular seasons into Lombardis. Darnold, so far, has turned them into “almosts.”
Seattle didn’t stumble into the No. 1 seed.
This team is physical, balanced, and built to support its quarterback. The run game is peaking. The defense is confident. And Darnold, for the first time in his career, doesn’t have to be Superman; he just has to be solid.
And there’s something poetic about this moment for Darnold.
The former Jet bust narrative. The journeyman label. The quiet resurgence that doesn’t come with flashy commercials or weekly hype segments. Just wins.
If the Seahawks win today, it won’t erase Darnold’s winding past, but it will finally add the one thing missing from his body of work ... a playoff victory.
Quarterbacks are judged harshly and remembered selectively. One January win won’t make him Brady. But it might finally make him something else entirely ... a winner when it counts.
For Sam Darnold, that would be the most meaningful stat of all.