Is this Sam Darnold’s year?
On the final day of the 2025 regular season, Darnold erased the bitter loss he and his team, at the time the Minnesota Vikings, suffered the season before when their last game of the year ended in a defeat that dropped them from a top seed in the playoffs to the fifth slot. This season, Darnold led the Seattle Seahawks to exactly the same spot, a top seed or fifth seed playoff seeding based on the final day of the regular season result.
He lost to the Detroit Lions on the road two years ago and beat the San Francisco 49ers on the road this year. The victory was the 14th for the Seahawks this season, matching the 14 he won with Minnesota in 2024, and elevating him to the second player in NFL history to win 28 regular season games in consecutive years. Tom Brady did that with the New England Patriots in 2003 and 2004 and went on to win the Super Bowl in both seasons. For the record, Brady accomplished the feat in a pair of 16 game seasons, while Darnold was 14-3 twice after the season was raised from 16 to 17 games.
Still, something has to be said for a quarterback that did it in consecutive years with different teams. It might also be worth noting that in the year before Darnold arrived in Seattle the Seahawks won 10 games, and the year after he left Minnesota, the Vikings notched 9 victories.
In 2024, Darnold opened the playoffs on the road against the Los Angeles Rams, and his Vikings squad got whipped. This year, he opened the Seahawks postseason at home and crushed the 49ers.
If you are following this pattern, you like Darnold’s chances on Sunday when he leads Seattle into battle against Matthew Stafford and his Rams at Lumen Field.