Rost: Interesting question emerging with Seahawks QB Darnold

We all spent most of the offseason wondering whether Sam Darnold could be as good as he was with the Vikings.

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Last season saw a breakout year; a new face for the “quarterback resurrection” movement already bolstered by Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield. Darnold threw for 35 touchdowns and 4,319 yards, both obviously career highs. A viral celebration captured his stretch of play with the Vikings: after a win over the Green Bay Packers, a locker room full of teammates and coaches and team employees broke into applause, sprayed bottles of water on Darnold and lifted him onto their shoulders.

Unfortunately for Darnold, his worst performances came in Minnesota’s two most important games. His first 14 starts got the Seattle Seahawks to buy in, but that sour final taste left plenty of critics wondering whether one of 2024’s breakout players would turn into a pumpkin.

“Maybe he could be almost as good here in Seattle?” felt like a perfectly acceptable bar for a team that wanted to focus on improving its run game.

This isn’t to say Darnold is outright better now than he was last year. We’ve seen four games, including one against a struggling Saints team. But through those four starts a new, more interesting option has emerged:

What if Darnold is better in Seattle?

All hypothetical of course. There’s still reason to doubt, and that’s not limited to him no longer being in an offense that doesn’t include Justin Jefferson as his primary target. Plus, Darnold isn’t putting up big numbers just yet; he had 11 touchdowns through the first four weeks last year compared to just five through the first month this season.

But, very quietly, Darnold is giving the Seahawks more than most expected. And that’s an intriguing start.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Darnold had two picks against the Steelers and a few close calls against a good Arizona defense. The team as a whole still needs some polishing after a poor second half allowed the Cardinals to rally to a near-win. Most of that was Seattle’s own doing: A holding call on Jaxon Smith-Njigba that negated a Zach Charbonnet touchdown, a fumbled interception, a taunting penalty on Kenneth Walker III that moved them out of field-goal territory early. A Cardinals special-teams gaffe gave the Seahawks fortunate field position to begin that final drive and sink a game-winning field goal.

But Week 4 also brought some of Darnold’s best plays thus far. That included a 24-yard scramble and this beauty down the sideline to Smith-Njigba:

Some of these throws that Sam Darnold makes is just not fair and JSN makes it look EASY! JSN quickly becoming an elite WR pic.twitter.com/3mGQ4YkXpv

— Justin Penik (@JustinPenik) September 26, 2025

And how about this stat from The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia…

Through four games, 21% of the Seahawks' pass plays have produced an explosive completion. That's the highest rate in the NFL.

Based on EPA per pass play and success rate, Sam Darnold is performing better with the Seahawks than he did last year with the Vikings.

— Sheil Kapadia (@SheilKapadia) September 26, 2025

A simple takeaway from that could be that Smith-Njigba — who has accounted for the lion’s share of Darnold’s targets — is pacing to have a phenomenal season and he and Darnold have established some good chemistry. But JSN isn’t the only Seahawk with explosive plays. Darnold’s second-longest completion Thursday went to rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo.

“Sam’s playing out of his mind right now,” Mike Macdonald told reporters after the game. “You see him and he’s just like such a cool customer. But he’s a guy on a mission. He’s so determined for us to be a great team and a great offense, and he’s doing a great job leading us.”

Back to that Cards’ rally…

The Seahawks can’t afford to many self-inflicted mistakes against their next opponent, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that have been the comeback kids.

The Bucs are 3-0 and have come from behind in each of those contests. That includes a 25-yard touchdown pass in the final minute of play against the Falcons in Week 1. Against the Texans, Mayfield & Co. drove 80 yards on 11 plays for a game-winning touchdown in the final nine seconds. And last week it was a field goal to seal a win over the Jets with three seconds remaining.

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