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Sam Darnold is realizing his potential on his fourth stop. Baker Mayfield and Geno Smith did the same. Jared Goff found his way on his second team.
Some quarterbacks just need a second chance. Or third. Or fourth.
Darnold was supposed to be a stopgap player in Minnesota, signed to a one-year, $10 million deal to keep a seat warm for J.J. McCarthy. But the rookie first-round pick suffered a season-ending knee injury in August and Darnold has seized the opportunity.
The Vikings (5-0) are the NFC’s only undefeated team going into their bye week and Darnold is a major reason why they’ve had success. He has completed 63.5% of his passes for 1,111 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions with a 103.4 passer rating.
“I knew all along if we could get some guys open, Sam Darnold’s going to hit them because he’s talented. He can play quarterback in the NFL, I’ve always believed that. I’m just proud of him,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said on Pat McAfee’s show this week. “He’s kind of not really worried about anything other than just his role on our team. He’s one of our captains. He works as hard as anybody to be ready to go. I’m not surprised when he goes out and has success.”
Selected by the Jets with the No. 3 overall pick in 2018, Darnold lasted just three seasons in New York. He played for two coaches — Todd Bowles and Adam Gase — on teams that went 13-35. Darnold then spent two seasons in Carolina, playing for two coaches — Matt Rhule and Steve Wilks — and three offensive coordinators on teams that went 12-22.
He crossed over with Mayfield during a chaotic year in Carolina in 2022 and backed up Brock Purdy last season in San Francisco. Mayfield went from the Panthers to the Rams in 2022 and ended up in Tampa Bay last year.
Solid coaching and supporting cast matters.
Darnold has it in Minnesota with O’Connell, Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, among others.
“A lot of guys with ability and sometimes they get in a different circumstance or different system and they excel in it and then other times they don’t,” six-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Belichick said on SiriusXM show “Let’s Go!” “I think we’ve all seen a lot of guys, the Tom Bradys of the world, how much he improved over the course of his career, it’s really phenomenal. It’s not where you were. It’s where you’re going and how hard are you willing to work at it.”
Darnold refused to blame the culture in New York and the organizational instability for his failure to succeed.
“I had a lot of opportunities in New York and I always felt like I could have played better there,” Darnold said last week in London before the Vikings beat Aaron Rodgers and the Jets 23-17.
Darnold wasn’t at his best against his former team. He completed just 45.2% of his passes and had a 50.3 passer rating, the first time he was under 100 this season.
But Darnold displayed poise and resilience. He bounced back from a pick and threw a 25-yard pass to Jefferson on second-and-9 to extend a fourth-quarter drive that ended with a field goal after the Jets had closed to 20-17.
“What I was proud of with Sam was it was another example of when momentum had kind of turned in many ways by our own doing, he was able to jog back out on that field, walk into the huddle and move the team,” O’Connell said.
Darnold probably would’ve been a candidate for the Comeback Player of the Year award before the AP issued guidance to voters before the season, instructing them that “the spirit of the award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”
If he keeps playing at this level, Darnold could end up with another award: Most Valuable Player.
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