When the Seahawks made the decision to move on from Geno Smith and bring in Sam Darnold, it turned plenty of heads around the league. After all, Smith had been on a late-career upswing in Seattle, while Darnold-despite a strong year in Minnesota-still carried the baggage of six up-and-down seasons.
On paper, it looked like a gamble. In practice?
It’s looking like one of the boldest, smartest moves Seattle's front office has made in years.
Let’s rewind for a second. Darnold’s 2025 season with the Vikings was, without question, the best of his career.
He threw for 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns, completed 66% of his passes, and posted a 102 passer rating. Those numbers weren’t just career highs-they were a complete rewrite of what we thought Darnold was capable of.
Before that, he’d never even crossed the 3,000-yard mark in a single season. So when Minnesota decided to move on from him after that breakout year, it raised eyebrows.
Why let go of a quarterback who finally seemed to figure it out?
Seattle didn’t hesitate. General Manager John Schneider saw an opportunity and pounced, bringing Darnold out west and handing him the keys to an offense that was in need of a new identity. Head coach Mike Macdonald, entering just his second year at the helm, was on board from the jump-even if the decision came quickly.
Macdonald, speaking during Super Bowl media week, didn’t frame the move as a surprise. Instead, he credited the Seahawks’ front office for staying focused on what would help the team most, not what might seem conventional or safe from the outside.
“You’re really thinking about what are the decisions we have to make right now that are gonna help our team the most,” Macdonald said. “As those things transpired in the offseason, to many people it seemed like it happened fast, and it happened over the course of a couple of days.
For us, it was really a series of decisions we had to make. John deserves a ton of credit for navigating us and guiding us through those times.”
That calculated risk has paid off in a big way. Darnold hasn’t just matched his Minnesota success-he’s built on it.
He’s taken Seattle deeper into the postseason, and now has them on the doorstep of a Super Bowl title. For a quarterback who once looked like a cautionary tale of unmet potential, this run has been a full-blown redemption arc.
And it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. There were bumps in the second half of the season-games where Darnold struggled, stretches where the offense sputtered.
But Macdonald never wavered. He stuck with his guy, and the team kept finding ways to win.
That kind of trust between coach and quarterback doesn’t just appear overnight. It’s earned, and it’s clear that Darnold has earned Macdonald’s full belief.
After a critical win over the Rams, Macdonald summed it up simply: “He shut a lot of people up tonight, so I’m really happy for him.”
It’s hard to overstate how much this move has reshaped Seattle’s trajectory. In the short term, Schneider’s midseason trade for Rashid Shaheed added a spark to the offense.
But long term, betting on Darnold over Smith might go down as the defining decision of this Seahawks era. Smith, now with the Raiders, hasn’t found the same success, and with Las Vegas eyeing a new quarterback in the draft, his time there could be nearing its end.
Meanwhile, Darnold is thriving. He’s not just a reclamation project anymore-he’s the engine behind a Super Bowl contender. And if this is the version of Sam Darnold that Seattle gets moving forward, the Seahawks may have found their quarterback of the future in the unlikeliest of places.
For Mike Macdonald and John Schneider, it’s been a masterclass in vision and conviction. And for Darnold, it’s the career revival he’s been chasing since the day he entered the league.