Facing Former Team, Seahawks’ Sam Darnold Credits Panthers’ Tenure for Pro Bowl Success
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Sam Darnold warms up for the Seattle Seahawks prior to a game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field. Credit: Kevin Ng-Imagn Images [/caption]
RENTON, Wash. - Garnering Pro Bowl honors a second straight season on December 23, Sam Darnold’s career renaissance started in Minnesota before taking another step forward under center for the current No. 1 seed Seattle Seahawks.
Bouncing around in his first six seasons after being a top-five draft pick by the Jets in 2018, Darnold tossed 35 touchdowns as a surprise breakout for the Vikings replacing injured rookie J.J. McCarthy last season, leading the team to a 14-3 record and a playoff spot. In the season prior, he learned invaluable lessons from 49ers starter Brock Purdy while pairing with then-49ers pass game coordinator and current Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, using a “redshirt” season as a backup as a hard reset.
But while Darnold has spoken publicly on multiple occasions about how his time in San Francisco propelled him to new heights in Minnesota and now in Seattle, where he reunited with Kubiak, a two-year pitstop in Carolina also served as a key fulcrum in turning his career back into the right direction. As he prepares to return to Charlotte for the first time since departing as a free agent after the 2022 season, though he didn’t have near the success with the Panthers he has the past two years, he believes that experience was just as important of a catalyst in his re-emergence.
“The couple years in Carolina were huge for me,” Darnold told reporters prior to Tuesday’s practice. “First of all, I think just being around really good players, being around really good guys in the locker room, those are moments that I remember forever. Some of those guys are still some of my best friends to this day. Then just learning football. I think that first year I learned a lot about myself, just going through adversity and learning that way, and then 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 towards the end of that season. 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.
Washing out of New York after his worst NFL season in 2020 in which Darnold threw nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions, the Jets traded the ex-USC standout to the Panthers for a 2021 sixth-round pick and 2022 second and fourth-round picks. He started his tenure in Carolina on a strong note, beating his former team in the season opener with 279 yards and a touchdown, the first of three straight wins with him under center.
But that fast start didn’t last, as the Panthers lost four of their next five games to sink back to the bottom of the NFC South standings, including a loss to the Patriots where Darnold suffered a fractured scapula. He missed the next six games and Carolina lost five straight games before he returned, knocked well out of the playoff race after an encouraging start. When he did play, the good vibes from the three weeks didn’t last for the quarterback either, as he threw 13 interceptions in 11 starts, far from proving himself to be the franchise’s long-term answer.
Given how Darnold’s play regressed as the season unfolded and the fact he had one year left under contract, the Panthers brought in extra competition for him, signing ex-No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield in free agency. In the third preseason game, Darnold suffered a high ankle sprain, landing on injured reserve to begin the season with Mayfield winning the job.
Sidelined until early November, Darnold wouldn’t take a single snap until Week 12, when Carolina named him as the starter over P.J. Walker, who had replaced as struggling Mayfield earlier in the season. With the Panthers already eliminated from playoff contention and coach Matt Rhule being fired, Darnold played strong football down the stretch, throwing seven touchdowns and just three interceptions while leading his team to four wins in the final six games, including a 30-24 upset over the Seahawks at Lumen Field.
“For me, the way I looked at it, it was just another opportunity for me to go play good football,” Darnold recalled of his time in Carolina. “I didn't really think about it as a fresh start or anything like that. It was just going to another team. To be honest, there was too much going on in my life at that time when I got traded to Carolina to worry about what it was in my life or what time was going on. It was more so just getting there, learning the offense, meeting the guys, and that was really it that was on my mind. 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.”
Oddly enough, despite playing some of his best football in those six games and leading the Panthers to a winning record as a starter in November and December, the franchise declined to re-sign Darnold. Instead, they traded a boatload of picks to the Bears to slide up to the No. 1 overall pick to select Bryce Young out of Alabama in the 2023 NFL Draft, leaving the quarterback without a clear landing spot to compete for a starting job elsewhere.
No longer in Carolina’s plans, this led to Darnold signing a one-year deal to back up Purdy in San Francisco, where he continued to re-gain his confidence with quality coaching and mentorship. Even with minimal playing time running Kyle Shanahan’s offense, he showed enough to warrant a free agent flier by Minnesota, and his experience battling through adversity in Carolina paid dividends and then some once McCarthy suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason.
The rest has been history as Darnold has transformed from a perceived bust early in his career with the Jets and the Panthers, posting an incredible 26-6 record orchestrating the offense for the Vikings and Seahawks over the past two seasons. Tossing 59 touchdowns while averaging 8.3 yards per attempt, he has become one of the NFL’s most prolific downfield passers, and even with 25 interceptions in that span, his resiliency learned from struggles earlier in his career such as with the Panthers has made him unflappable, demonstrating the short-term memory all great quarterbacks must have to quickly shake off mistakes.
This couldn’t have been more emphatically illustrated than Darnold’s breakthrough comeback effort against the Rams on Thursday Night Football last week. After throwing two horrible interceptions that helped the Seahawks fall behind 30-14 in the fourth quarter, he steered both the game-tying and game-winning touchdown drives in the fourth quarter and overtime, hitting tight end AJ Barner and receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for those two pivotal scores respectively.
Citing Tom Brady as his greatest influence when it comes to how he handles late game situations, Darnold did his best impression of his idol in prime time in arguably the biggest Thursday Night Football game of all-time, hitting Smith-Njigba on a crosser at the back of the end zone before executing a gutsy two-point play with a conversion to seldom-used tight end Eric Saubert.
“The way that I always admired him growing up, watching him play, and I was able to actually watch him play quite a bit even still as I was in the league. Watching him kind of do his thing in the two-minute drill, I never felt like his body language ever changed whether he was in the first quarter of a game or the last two minutes. So that was something that I always admired.”
Now closing in on a week since pulling off that stunning Brady-like comeback, Darnold will get his first crack at enacting revenge against Carolina and his successor in Young, though the quarterback certainly won’t be using that verbiage leading up to the game. Rather than being bitter about the fact that the Panthers chose not to retain him, exhibiting the same demeanor as he did leading up to playing another former team in the Vikings earlier this season, his focus remains solely on preparing for an underrated, improving defense that ranks in the top half of the league in scoring (22.5 points per game) and turnovers forced (17).
Leading the charge, Carolina has two of the top interception-producing cornerbacks in the NFC, with former top-10 pick Jaycee Horn leading the charge with five picks and ex-Seahawk starter Mike Jackson having three of his own. In the trenches, Darnold will have to be ready for defensive tackle Derrick Brown to make his presence felt with interior disruption as he did in an earlier upset over the Rams and several other games this year, as he leads the team with five sacks and 10 quarterback hits.
Armed with a few extra days rest from a mini-bye, regardless of where the game is being held, Darnold knows the Seahawks have to be ready for the Panthers’ best shot with both teams clinging to slim leads in their respective divisions and two games left to play. Not one to concern himself with individual storylines such as playing a former employer or individual accolades such as another Pro Bowl nod, he and his teammates will have to play their best ball and make sure to take advantage of the extra time to recoup if they wish to maintain their No. 1 seed standing going into the finale.
“Carolina's a great football team, great defense, really good scheme, really good players that make it all work. We're excited about this challenge, as always, headed on the road to the East Coast again, and we're looking forward to it.”
