Sam Darnold will be on everyone’s TVs to get the 2026 NFL season underway.
He’s the starting quarterback for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, of course, and they’ve been given the unusual but marquee slot for the first game of the pro football season, taking on the New England Patriots in a rematch of the big game.
It’s crazy to think that not really all that long ago, Darnold was a member of the Carolina Panthers. He was brought to town to be given a chance to revive his career.
Instead, Darnold left pretty much in shambles.
Somehow, only a few years later, he’s a Super Bowl champion with all eyes on him to see what he’ll do for an encore.
Sam Darnold With Panthers
Darnold was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft by the New York Jets — ahead of, among others, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
He had a few moments of promise but in general was a bust, and so they chose to trade him to the Panthers before the 2021 season. Carolina traded three draft picks (second, fourth, and sixth-round picks) to acquire Darnold.
Carolina exercised Darnold’s fifth-year option on his rookie contract after acquiring him, which applied to 2022, meaning they signed up for two years to see what they could get out of Darnold.
In 2021, the Panthers went 4-7 with Darnold as their starting quarterback. He missed more than a month in the middle of the season with a fractured scapula. He threw 13 interceptions compared to just nine interceptions.
The following summer, Darnold lost a preseason competition to Browns discard Baker Mayfield, the guy who was picked two picks before Darnold in 2018.
Darnold also missed time with a high-ankle sprain and didn’t start until Week 12, about the time Mayfield was going on an odd journey across the country to the Rams.
In the 2022 season, Darnold threw seven touchdowns with just three interceptions, and he had a 4-2 record as a starter. Those elsewhere took notice, and Darnold headed to free agency.
Sam Darnold’s Path
Darnold left Carolina to join the San Francisco 49ers in 2023 free agency, and he was the backup there. He was QB2 behind Brock Purdy on the way to the Super Bowl, which they lost, and he credited time with Kyle Shanahan to growing him as a quarterback.
After that year, Darnold signed with the Minnesota Vikings, where he won the starting job after J.J. McCarthy got hurt in the preseason.
Darnold made the Pro Bowl as the Vikings went 14-3 in the regular season, and he threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns.
That earned him a three-year, $100.5 million contract with the Seahawks, and the rest is history.
The picture at the top of this article says it all. Darnold wasn’t “seeing ghosts” anymore, as he said once in his Jets days. He found joy in football again. He’s a champion.
A trip through Carolina with the Panthers may have, in an odd way, steered him down the road that led him here.
Sam Darnold’s Path From Panthers’ Discard to Seahawks’ Super Bowl Champion