Sam Darnold’s football journey has taken more turns than a two-minute drill, but this past year? It’s been nothing short of a redemption arc. After bouncing around the league and showing flashes but never quite putting it all together, Darnold signed with the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason-and now he’s headed to the Super Bowl.
Let that sink in for a second.
The same quarterback who was once seen as a reclamation project is now the centerpiece of a team playing on football’s biggest stage. And while Seattle celebrates, the Minnesota Vikings are left wondering what could’ve been.
Darnold was with the Vikings last season and helped guide them to the playoffs. Sure, they fell in the Wild Card Round to the Rams, but he played well enough to earn another look.
Instead, Minnesota let him walk. Fast forward a year, and that decision looms large over a franchise that just fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after a disappointing season that never got off the ground.
So how did the Vikings let a quarterback who’s now Super Bowl-bound slip through their fingers?
According to reporting from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, it came down to contract structure-specifically, years and guaranteed money. Minnesota’s approach to retaining Darnold was described as “basically a one-year commitment.” Seattle, on the other hand, offered more money in Year 2, signaling a longer-term investment and belief in Darnold’s potential.
It wasn’t just a matter of losing Darnold, either. The Vikings reportedly pursued Daniel Jones more aggressively, but he ended up signing with Indianapolis, where a clearer path to the starting job-and a $14 million offer-awaited him.
With both Darnold and Jones off the board, Minnesota turned to the draft and committed to rookie JJ McCarthy. That’s a big swing for a quarterback who hadn’t taken a single NFL snap. And while there was optimism about his upside, injuries derailed his rookie campaign before it ever really began.
That left the Vikings turning to veteran Carson Wentz, who ended up taking the lion’s share of snaps-until he too went down with injury. The result? A revolving door at quarterback, a stalled offense, and a season that never found its rhythm.
Meanwhile, Darnold has thrived in Seattle. He’s been efficient, composed, and-most importantly-healthy. He’s taken full command of the Seahawks’ offense, and with strong support from the coaching staff and a roster built to compete, he’s now playing the best football of his career.
It’s a tale of two franchises: one that bet on Darnold and is reaping the rewards, and another that hesitated and is now left searching for answers.
For the Vikings, the fallout is real. Letting Darnold walk might not have seemed like a major misstep at the time, but in hindsight, it’s become a defining moment of an offseason that went sideways. And for a front office that needed results, it may have been the final straw.