Darnold impresses Huard, Hasselbeck at Seahawks minicamp

Sam Darnold’s first season with the Seattle Seahawks couldn’t have gone much better.

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He helped lead the Seahawks to a franchise-best 14-3 regular season and a Super Bowl title. He finished eighth in the NFL in completion rate (67.7%), fifth in passing yards (4,048), tied for ninth in touchdown passes (25) and second in yards per pass attempt (8.5).

And along the way, he delivered the best performance of his career, throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns in Seattle’s 31-27 NFC Championship Game win over the archrival Los Angeles Rams.

So, what’s in store for Darnold in 2026? After watching Seahawks minicamp last week, former NFL quarterback Brock Huard thinks the 29-year-old Darnold can take another step forward this fall.

“I think he’s gonna be better,” Huard said on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “That was probably my single-biggest takeaway from practice. … If you knew nothing else, you travel to 31 other minicamps, you watch the starting quarterback on 31 other teams – Sam Darnold is one of the 10 best on the planet right now.

“His timing, his precision, his accuracy, his anticipation, his red-zone awareness (was impressive).”

Darnold also left a strong impression on former Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who attended last Thursday’s minicamp practice.

“I thought he was exceptional,” Hasselbeck said on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “I thought he had complete command and control. He was aggressive. It looked like it was coming easy to him.”

Like Huard, Hasselbeck thinks Darnold’s best days are ahead.

“I think that Sam Darnold is still just a young quarterback scratching the surface of what he can be,” Hasselbeck said. “I really hate when people on the national level discredit the year that he had last year, because I think that’s obnoxious. At the same time, I think he can still play a heck of a lot better. And that’s what I saw in that Thursday minicamp practice.”

The biggest key for Darnold, of course, is limiting mistakes. He threw 14 interceptions last season, which were third-most in the NFL. However, Darnold flipped the script down the stretch, playing turnover-free ball over his final four games from Week 18 through the Super Bowl.

“You watch the highlight reel of Sam Darnold last year and you’re like, that’s one of the five to 10 best quarterbacks in the league,” Huard said. “Eliminating the lowlight reel? That’s how (Sam enters) the national narrative with everybody. And I would expect those lowlights to continue to be eliminated.”

Listen to Brock Huard’s Seahawks minicamp observations at this link and Matt Hasselbeck’s takeaways at this link. Tune into Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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