Sam Darnold seemed destined for stardom and then his career fell apart. The long rebuild has brought him to Super Bowl LX

By Kyle Feldscher, CNN

San Francisco (CNN) — Sam Darnold seemed destined to be a star.

With the home state kid under center, the University of Southern California surged back into the prominent national profile to which Trojan fans were accustomed. He won one of the most thrilling Rose Bowls of the 2010s and then followed that up by winning a Pac-12 championship before declaring for the NFL draft.

He went No. 3 overall in 2018 to the New York Jets. And it all didn’t go to plan.

“You have to embrace failure, and you have to learn from your mistakes. And I think you know learning from my mistakes early in my career, I feel like has gotten me to this point,” Darnold said this week ahead of Super Bowl LX.

He’ll be starting for the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Perhaps the incredible turnaround he’s experienced in the last two years is a testament to all the failures from which he learned in the six that came before.

Darnold’s first-ever pass in the NFL was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. Three losing seasons followed and Darnold was eventually traded to the Carolina Panthers. In Charlotte, he eventually got demoted to a backup role. The team elected not to re-sign him when his contract expired, and he signed up as a backup for the San Francisco 49ers in 2023. He played in one game as Brock Purdy led the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

A year later, he was on the move again, becoming the backup in Minnesota to the Vikings’ rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy, who had just won a national title at Michigan. McCarthy was the team’s franchise QB and expected to be the future.

That all changed after one preseason game. McCarthy tore the meniscus in his right knee in his very first professional action and was ruled out for the year. The stunned Vikings turned to Darnold – and he delivered.

Call it destiny delayed: Darnold delivered one of the more remarkable breakout seasons in recent memory for a quarterback, passing for more than 4,300 yards and 35 touchdowns, leading the Vikings to the NFL playoffs. Even with a disappointing ending to the season with a first-round exit against the Los Angeles Rams, Darnold became a star and forced Minnesota into a difficult choice: Continue with the plan that had McCarthy be the future of the franchise or re-sign Darnold to a long-term deal after his incredible 2024.

They went with McCarthy, a decision that may leave that franchise in limbo for years – the former Wolverine’s second season wasn’t quite as injury-marred as his first, but he still missed significant time. Darnold, meanwhile, found a home in Seattle and continued his career renaissance. Another season with more than 4,000 yards, another 25 touchdowns and now, a berth in the Super Bowl.

Now he’ll return to Santa Clara to play in his old home field at Levi’s Stadium – even occupying the same locker room from 2023. It’s a full circle moment made up of many baby steps.

“The only thing that matters is if you believe in yourself. That’s really it,” Darnold said this week. “I always believed in myself. I knew that I could do this at a high level, and that was really it. That’s what kept me going. And I knew at some point an opportunity would arise, but even if it didn’t, I knew that I did everything that I could to become a better player, year in and year out.”

A resilience built on lessons from his parents

Where does that kind of resilience come from? Darnold puts it all on his parents.

“My dad was a plumber growing up, my mom … is a PE teacher, and you know, no matter what kind of days they had, it was always just they were always in the best mood for me and my sister growing up,” he said. “And you know, no matter what happened at work, my dad was always out there playing catch with me after work. So, you know, I feel like I just naturally kind of learned to be resilient and take it one day at a time from them.”

The long journey from that success in college and the success in the pros has reinforced the lessons Darnold learned from his parents early in his life. It’s a simple mantra: Show up every day. Always be learning. Know there’s always room to get better.

Even during those dark days when things started to go wrong in New York, it was clear to his teammates that Darnold had the spine to deal with disappointment. Jason Myers, the Seahawks’ kicker who played with Darnold on the Jets, said he’s not changed.

“I remember the first time I met Sam he was just like he is today. Just a great guy, great leader in the locker room. He connects well with the entire locker room,” Myers told CNN Sports. “Definitely proud of him being able to get this spotlight because he’s worked his ass off for it.”

That toughness – both mental and physical – have been put to the test during this playoff run.

Not only has Darnold never started in pressure-cooker games like this deep playoff run, but he’s also been dealing with an injury. Just before Seattle’s first playoff game, a divisional round matchup against the 49ers, the team announced he was dealing with an oblique injury. That kind of pain in one’s core can make it difficult to throw the ball, not to mention absorb the force delivered by a blitzing linebacker.

He’s not missed a game yet and his teammates have been inspired by the grittiness required to play through the pain.

“That’s just the type of team that we are,” said AJ Barner, Seattle’s tight end. “I don’t think you’re gonna fit in here if you don’t play through pain. So that’s the type of Seahawk brand of football that we play, and our quarterback represents that.”

Chewed up but still here

The fact that Darnold has a starting job at all, let alone with a team that could win a title, is a bit unbelievable, according to one of his top targets.

“It’s maybe one of those things that’s very understated, is quickly the NFL can chew up and spit out a quarterback who doesn’t perform up to the standards that people place on them early in their career,” said Cooper Kupp, the Seattle veteran wide receiver. “You can get basically blackballed and saying, ‘Well, you’re not a starting quarterback.’”

“For Sam to be able to do what he did and go through the early trials that he did, and be able to come back from that … I know that he knows the mistakes that he’s made. He knows the things that work, the things that didn’t, but to not be scarred by them, to not allow them to become something that he shied away from – it’s impressive. It’s really impressive. Takes a lot of mental fortitude to push through those things and to be here now and do what he’s done the last couple years, there’s not many people that have done it.”

Mike Macdonald, the Seattle head coach, said the fact that Darnold had to have all of those growing pains under the intense microscope of the NFL has made him into the leader he is now.

The expectations at the highest level of football are intense and not living up to them – especially in New York, where the media spotlight can melt many players before they’re able to really get their career started – can be a death knell for a quarterback’s career. After his breakout season in Minneapolis, the expectations were high again in Seattle, but Macdonald said his quarterback has more than met them.

“As a coach, we have visions for our players and it’s about fulfilling that vision,” he said.

“There’s gonna be times throughout the year you fall short, and you kind of get back up and dust yourself off and keep plugging away so and Sam’s been that steadying force. He’s a resilient, resilient dude, man, a competitor, a winner. It’s been fun to be alongside him throughout the whole year.”

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