RENTON, Wash. – Can the Seattle Seahawks win a Super Bowl with Sam Darnold under center?
As Seattle faces an uncertain future, that’s the question that matters most. Not whether Darnold is an upgrade over Geno Smith, who the Seahawks stunningly traded to the Las Vegas Raiders (and coach Pete Carroll) last week. Not whether Darnold’s addition helps the Seahawks “win” free agency, an imaginary award that matters only on social media. Not whether Darnold is an expensive bridge to someone better.
Thirty minutes after his signing was announced Thursday, a smiling Darnold held a Seahawks jersey and posed for photographs at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. He was surrounded by coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, facing an auditorium filled with media members and team employees. He looked specifically styled for the Pacific Northwest – with facial hair, an informal flannel and converse kicks.
But all of the aesthetics are secondary.
So, can the Seahawks win a Super Bowl with Darnold under center?
There are two elements to the answer.
1) Not if the roster around him doesn’t dramatically improve.
This is, after all, a team that went 10-7 and missed the playoffs (again) in 2024. It’s a team with a helplessly unbalanced offense that ranked 28th in rushing (95.7 yards per game). It’s a team with a persistently lacking offensive line that surrendered the third-most sacks (54) in the NFL. It’s a team that’s suddenly searching for wide receivers, after trading DK Metcalf and releasing Tyler Lockett in the same dizzying week. It’s a team with more potential than star power, with obvious needs and unconvincing answers.
Yes, Kubiak and Co. could help improve Seattle’s underperforming personnel. But what have the Seahawks done to fill their holes at guard and center? They didn’t sign top linemen such as Drew Dalman (Bears), Will Fries (Vikings) and Kevin Zeitler (Titans), despite the indignation of an understandably impatient fan base.
Aside from Darnold, they signed a documented deep threat with a limited ceiling (Marquez Valdes-Scantling), a four-time Pro-Bowl defensive end with durability issues (DeMarcus Lawrence) and a backup offensive lineman with 12 starts in the past three seasons (Josh Jones). They also retained a pair of impressive defensive pieces in linebacker Ernest Jones IV and defensive lineman Jarran Reed.
That’s not nearly enough.
Because, as Macdonald said at the NFL scouting combine last month: “You’ve got to be able to win at the line of scrimmage. If you can’t see that from watching the playoffs this year, then I don’t know what game you’re watching. Obviously we have to be able to do that if we want to win a championship.”
That should be the only goal – not an endless string of nine- or 10-win seasons, not a team that teases but can’t actually contend.
The good news is, Seattle has money to spend and assets to maximize. Specifically, general manager John Schneider is armed with 10 draft picks, five of which come in the top 92. It’s also lauded as a deep draft on the offensive line, providing the Seahawks ample opportunities to immediately improve.
Some intriguing free agents – wide receiver Cooper Kupp, guards Mekhi Becton and Teven Jenkins, etc. – remain available as well.
The point: Darnold is doomed to fail unless put in a position to succeed. That means finally improving a perpetually underperforming front. It means adding viable playmakers to pair with Valdes-Scantling and ascending wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba. It means providing the holistic support Darnold received in Minnesota.
Even then, the Vikings couldn’t win a Super Bowl with Darnold under center.
Which brings us to our second answer.
2) Not if Darnold can’t reach another level.
The 27-year-old signal caller made miraculous strides in Minnesota, throwing for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns (both fifth in the NFL). His career resurgence was accompanied by a competent offensive line, a pair of prolific wide receivers (Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison), a reliable running back (Aaron Jones), a standout tight end (T.J. Hockenson) and a heralded coach/play-caller (Kevin O’Connell).
The circumstances were welcoming.
But Darnold – the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft, who struggled through stints with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers – deserves credit for putting himself in that position.
“If you get selected early, you get a year or two maybe to prove yourself, and then they kick you to the curb,” said Kubiak, Darnold’s passing-game coordinator with the 49ers in 2023. “Some guys are mentally tough enough to come back and fight through it, and I’m sitting next to one of ‘em.”
But was Kubiak sitting next to a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback?
That depends, perhaps, on your perspective.
Darnold led Minnesota to a 14-3 regular-season record in 2024, throwing 18 touchdowns and just two interceptions in a sizzling seven-game sprint. But that success abruptly evaporated, as he completed just 53.1% of his passes with one touchdown and one interception (while being sacked 11 times) in his last two games.
Some say those losses – a 31-9 regular-season dud against Detroit, and a 27-9 wild-card exit against the Rams – provide damning proof of Darnold’s ceiling.
He couldn’t win with a more complete supporting cast than he might find in Seattle.
But that was then. Can he be better?
“You get all the way to that point, and you have the season that we had offensively and as a team, and then at the end of the day, only one team can win the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, we weren’t that team,” Darnold said of those struggles. “But I learned a ton from those last two games especially, playing Detroit and playing L.A.
“We’re going to see L.A. twice a year obviously, playing in this division, and I’m really looking forward to that. It’s just continuing to learn – learn things about yourself, what they did schematically. That’s basically all you can do, learn from those experiences.”
In an uneven seven seasons, Darnold has learned a lot, and the Seahawks are betting he can exceed what he was in Minnesota. But it takes more than a quarterback to lift a trophy as blue and green confetti falls.
Sure, there’s a world where Seattle wins a Super Bowl with Darnold under center.
But from quarterback to coach to general manager, the Seahawks have work to do.