{"id":208970,"date":"2025-10-08T11:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/208970\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T11:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T11:34:06","slug":"a-quarterbacks-old-team-dumped-him-his-new-team-is-reaping-the-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/208970\/","title":{"rendered":"A quarterback’s old team dumped him. His new team is reaping the benefits."},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare for a quarterback to win as many games as Sam Darnold did last year, only to become one of the offseason\u2019s less celebrated signings. <\/p>\n

Last year, Darnold led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record \u2014 tied with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles for second-most wins in the NFL \u2014 and posted career-best marks in passing yards, touchdowns and passer rating. <\/p>\n

But after he struggled in both the Vikings\u2019 final regular season game and their first-round playoff loss, Minnesota decided not to re-sign Darnold in the offseason, even though he finished 2024 with the sixth-best passer rating and fifth-most touchdown passes in the league.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Then, when Darnold signed a three-year, $105 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks \u2014 the 18th-highest average salary among signal callers \u2014 the move was met with a lukewarm response at best.<\/p>\n

ESPN graded the signing<\/a> as a B-, describing Darnold as a downgrade from previous quarterback Geno Smith. Pro Football Network was more critical, calling Darnold\u2019s contract one of the worst<\/a> in free agency.<\/p>\n

Now, through five weeks of the 2025 season, Darnold not only is proving his critics wrong, but he has improved to the point that he has become one of the best quarterbacks in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very special quarterback here,\u201d Seahawks tight end AJ Barner told reporters<\/a> Sunday. \u201cAnd I think people are starting to find that out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Entering Week 6, Darnold is the highest-graded quarterback<\/a> in the NFL (minimum 200 snaps), according to Pro Football Focus. He is ranked second in ESPN\u2019s QBR<\/a>, a metric for quarterbacks that also includes running plays and is adjusted for strength of opposing defenses.<\/p>\n

Darnold is also fourth in expected points added per play<\/a>, third in passer rating and seventh in touchdowns. <\/p>\n

In Seattle\u2019s 38-35 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 5, Darnold had a fantastic performance, albeit in defeat.<\/p>\n

Playing his 2018 draft classmate (and former teammate and fellow castoff) Baker Mayfield, Darnold threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns. He led Seattle back from a two-score deficit to take the lead and even orchestrated a 99-yard go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, which included a touchdown pass on fourth down. <\/p>\n

Even though Darnold ran into some bad luck on the Seahawks\u2019 final drive \u2014 his pass bounced off a helmet into a defender\u2019s arms for an interception \u2014 he earned the praise of his teammates and coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam played a tremendous football game,\u201d Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald said. \u201cI thought we were going to have a chance to win the game there at the end. What was it, a 99-yard drive, fourth down, extending plays. I thought Sam played tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Receiver Tory Horton, who caught Darnold\u2019s final touchdown of the day after he deftly evaded two pass rushers, said: \u201cHe has some magic up his sleeve. He\u2019s always on top of his game. Just the way he moves in the pocket is very underrated. That\u2019s stuff that we repped in practice. I threw my hand up and he made eye contact and we knew we had a play. He\u2019s doing all he can out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darnold\u2019s success is not only making the Seahawks look brilliant; it\u2019s making a couple of other teams look foolish.<\/p>\n

Smith, who posted three straight winning seasons as Seattle\u2019s starter, is 1-4 with the Las Vegas Raiders and has already thrown nine interceptions.<\/p>\n

The Vikings, meanwhile, are 3-2 and would need to go 11-1 the rest of the season to match Darnold\u2019s win total. <\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also had subpar play at quarterback. Second-year player J.J. McCarthy started the team\u2019s first two games and struggled, and he has been out the last three weeks with an injury. Backup Carson Wentz hasn\u2019t been much better, ranking 26th in QBR. <\/p>\n

Minnesota made an unprecedented decision to move on from Darnold. Since 1970, 97 teams have won 80% of their games in a single season, but only three<\/a> didn\u2019t bring back the same starting quarterback the next year, according to The Athletic. <\/p>\n

The 2025 Vikings are the only one of the three who opted for a first-time starter over the previous season\u2019s quarterback. <\/p>\n

With the caveat that most of the season still has to be played \u2014 and Darnold will have to prove himself in much bigger moments \u2014 so far, that decision hasn\u2019t paid off. <\/p>\n

\u201cSam\u2019s playing out of his mind right now,\u201d Macdonald said after Darnold led a game-winning drive in Week 4. \u201cYou see him, he\u2019s just such a cool customer. But he\u2019s a guy on a mission. He\u2019s so determined for us to be a great team and a great offense, and he\u2019s doing a great job leading us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s rare for a quarterback to win as many games as Sam Darnold did last year, only to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-208970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}