One of the biggest talking points of the Seattle Seahawks’ Thursday night outing against the Arizona Cardinals is the NFL’s kickoff rules. Nobody seems to like the fact that a kick being short of the ‘landing zone’ sets your opponent up for a four-play game-winning drive. But that’s how it’ll go down in the record books for Sam Darnold and Co.
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That’s not to take away from the resurgence that Darnold has enjoyed in recent times. The former third-overall draft pick was considered one of the most unlikely candidates to find success when he began his stint with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024. His fortunes took a turn for the better in Minnesota.
Darnold moved to Seattle this year, and…. Well, according to Colin Cowherd, the Week 4 divisional win officially makes the 28-year-old quarterback the ideal “example of ‘where you land matters.”
It’s no secret that the Southern California product had a rough start to his professional football career from the time he was drafted by the New York Jets in 2018. But now that he’s on the other side of those struggles, it seems as if his former teams (the Jets, the Panthers, and the 49ers) were more to blame than some may have realized.
“The Jets and Carolina, they asked him to carry the franchise. The last two stops? Good coaches, good roster, and suddenly he’s elite. Oh yeah, he’s elite,” said Cowherd.
“In the last two years, he’s tied for the most wins in the league by a quarterback. He’s tied for the most game-winning drives with Patrick Mahomes. And he leads the NFL in big plays,” he added.
Cowherd pointed out that the Seahawks’ roster is one of the youngest in all of the NFL, suggesting that they may be able to go on a run before this thing is over with.
Darnold’s playoff performance with the Vikings in the last campaign left a lot to be desired. But now that he’s got the likes of Kenneth Walker III and Jaxson Smith-Njigba on his side, the QB is poised to get another try at things this year.
Seattle is averaging almost 33 points per game in the past three weeks, and their defense is looking just as stout. They’ve held opponents to an average of 16.75 points per game since the start of the season, and their run defense is currently one of the best available, holding rushers to a mere average of 3.6 yards per attempt.
When it comes to passer ratings, yards gained per pass attempt, and passing success rates, Darnold is officially a top-10 quarterback. Believe it or not, those are things that you can’t say about Mahomes this year.
If you had told someone in 2021 that Darnold would be outproducing the star of the Kansas City Chiefs in four years, you would have been met with laughter before being disregarded as a fool. Nevertheless, this is now a reality, and, according to Cowherd, it’s about time that we acknowledge that and begin to give Darnold the credit he deserves.
