Darnold just won the Super Bowl with the Seahawks, and now he's getting his flowers for a remarkable career turnaround.
Sam Darnold entered the 2025 season with a lot of question marks hanging over him as he took charge of the Seattle Seahawks' offense.
After a 14-3 season with the Minnesota Vikings and a playoff meltdown for the ages, many weren't sure what we were going to get from Darnold.
Well, another 14-3 record (Sam is now 28-6 in his last two regular seasons) and a Super Bowl win have ended any and all narratives surrounding Darnold.
He is no longer the "bust" many thought, and he's done something Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Joe Burrow haven't: hoist a Lombardi Trophy.
So, as we turn to 2026, Darnold, you could say, has nothing left to prove, having reached the top of the NFL mountain, but he could still further his case as one of the better quarterbacks in football.
For CBS Sports' Bryan DeArdo, he's put all 32 starting quarterbacks into six tiers, and Darnold has landed in the second-highest, named "Borderline stars."
"After a tumultuous start, the former No. 2 overall pick resurrected his career," DeArdo wrote. "Darnold delivered a Pro Bowl 2024 season with the Vikings, and he reached the mountaintop with Seattle in 2025. He begins the 2026 season as the starting quarterback for the defending Super Bowl champions."
On face value, that might not seem like the accolade it is, but in DeArdo's tiers, only five quarterbacks are in the top tier, and then Darnold is the second quarterback named in the second tier.
So, Darnold a top 10 quarterback entering 2026? I'm sure that is a big discussion point, but the main thread to pull here is what Darnold has managed to do over the past two seasons.
He landed in Minnesota very much with the "bust" label attached, and a 14-3 regular season had many thinking he had turned the corner. However, that brutal playoff loss hurt Sam's stock.
Then last season, another 14-3 record, but this time there was no playoff meltdown, and he led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl.
The career redemption that Darnold has embarked on over the past two seasons has been superb to watch, and now he's considered one of the better quarterbacks in the league after being on the verge of a bust.
What does 2026 have in store for Sam?
