Daniel Jeremiah: Sam Darnold a top-five MVP candidate so far

Heading into this season, many wondered whether Sam Darnold’s 2024 breakout campaign with the Minnesota Vikings was just a flash in the pan.

So far, he’s provided an emphatic answer to those questions.

Darnold has been one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks this season, completing 73.1% of his passes for 1,246 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions through his first five games with the Seattle Seahawks.

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Darnold has averaged a league-high 9.3 yards per pass attempt, while ranking second in ESPN’s QBR metric, third in completion rate, seventh in passing yards and tied for seventh in TD passes. He also ranks second among quarterbacks in Pro Football Focus grading and has PFF’s second-lowest turnover-worthy play rate.

During his weekly appearance on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah once again sang Darnold’s praises.

“He’s been awesome, to the point where I think if you did an MVP poll, I think he’s in the top five at this point in time,” Jeremiah said.

Jeremiah then went a step further, looking ahead to what the 28-year-old Darnold could be capable of in future seasons. As Jeremiah pointed out, Darnold is just five games into a new offense with a lot of young pieces around him.

“If this is where he is right now in his introduction into this offense – and they’ve got some young pieces, they’ve got the nucleus of a good offensive line going forward – it’s not out of the realm to think like, OK, maybe a year from now, with already as good as it looks right now, that he could win an MVP,” Jeremiah said.

In particular, Jeremiah has been impressed by how quickly and smoothly Darnold is going through his progressions.

“Watching these teams every week and going through tape every week, I don’t know, especially with Joe Burrow on the shelf, if anybody’s processing as fast as Sam is processing right now – like, continually getting to (his third and fourth options) quickly,” Jeremiah said. “I think he’s seeing the field really, really well.”

Tory Horton gives the @Seahawks the lead!

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The entirety of Darnold’s tape

Darnold had a particularly brilliant performance in Seattle’s 38-35 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this past Sunday. He completed 28 of 34 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns, including a 21-yard TD pass in the closing minutes where he slipped out of pressure on a fourth-and-2 and found Tory Horton for a go-ahead score.

Of course, Darnold’s final pass on Sunday glanced off a Tampa Bay defender’s helmet and was picked off, setting up the Buccaneers’ game-winning field goal.

But to NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, that hardly overshadows everything else Darnold has put on tape this fall – especially considering that just one week prior, he made a big-time throw in the final minute that led to a game-winning field goal against the Arizona Cardinals.

Jeremiah then used an analogy to illustrate how he’d view any criticism of Darnold for that last-minute interception against Tampa Bay.

“It almost to me feels like you hire a financial advisor who gets you a 30% return in the first three quarters and he loses 1% in the fourth quarter and you go, ‘Wow, this financial advisor sucks. I’ve only made 29% on my money,'” Jeremiah said. “Like, I think on the whole, (Darnold’s overall performance) has so outweighed (that).”

Listen to the full conversation with NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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