Sam Darnold

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• Camp · Aug 31, 2026Aug 31, 2026

  Sam Darnold Camp Update — August 31: Zero Preseason Snaps Into the Opener

  No Seattle preseason coverage has Darnold taking a snap, and he enters the opener with no game action this year, with Bob Condotta at The Seattle Times writing that he had a good camp and is obviously secure as the starter. Around him, the cutdown reshaped the huddle — the lead back on reserve, a rookie atop the backfield, and a receiver room of five.

• Camp · Aug 23, 2026Aug 23, 2026

  Sam Darnold Camp Update — August 23: Two Picks in the Nashville Test

  Darnold's first work against another team this camp produced two interceptions, including a pick-six, alongside sideline completions to Smith-Njigba and a red-zone score to Arroyo, with the Titans' pass rush drawing his respect afterward. Game snaps remain at zero, with the Titans game today.

• Camp · Aug 16, 2026Aug 17, 2026

  Sam Darnold Camp Update — August 16: Five Touchdowns, Two Picks, Zero Game Snaps

  Darnold's week was five practice touchdowns, two practice interceptions, and a night off while Drew Lock started the opener. The June base-rate argument didn't need game snaps and didn't get any.

• 2026 PreviewJul 3, 2026

  Sam Darnold 2026 Season Preview — what repeats, what doesn't

  Darnold finished QB14 across all 17 games, averaging 13.8 half-PPR points per game — a season built on durability and role security rather than efficiency spikes or touchdown variance. His 72.9% availability rate from 2021–25 is the honest context: the volume was real, but staying on the field has not been a given across his career.

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  Show notes & transcript

  Sam Darnold started all 17 games for the team that won the Super Bowl, threw for 4048 yards — and drafts treat him like a backup plan: quarterback 22, pick one-35. The market isn't disrespecting the ring. It's pricing eight seasons of evidence over one.

  The season: 17 starts, a 68 percent completion rate — 323 of 477 — for 4048 yards, 25 touchdowns and 14 picks, with under a hundred rushing yards all year. On quarterback scoring — standard four-point passing, same thing as Half-PPR for quarterbacks — that's 13.8 points a game, 20-fourth among qualifiers, fourteenth in total points because he answered the bell all 17 weeks. Seattle went 14 three, took the NFC's top seed, and won it all; the club's February recap and every national outlet counted the rest — a Pro Bowl nod included, per his player page.

  The career explains the price better than the parade did. Nine seasons in: 12-nine, 14-six, 11-two, 13-one as a young Jet and Panther, a lost stretch, then the outlier — 18-one a game in Minnesota in 20-24 — and now 13-eight in Seattle. One season out of eight above 15 points a game. The Minnesota year is the ceiling argument; everything else is the base.

  The pattern read is quick, and it's the quiet kind. His fantasy profile is pure pocket: four percent of his scoring came from rushing, so the rushing-floor rule that protects the position's top prices has nothing to hold onto here — and its warning half is the relevant half: spike seasons from pocket passers are the ones that don't repeat. Our library prices continuation, and continuation says the thirteens, not the 18.

  What's new is the man calling it. Klint Kubiak parlayed the title into the Raiders' head job in February, and Seattle promoted from within its coaching tree: Brian Fleury, hired February nineteenth — a first-time play-caller whose stated goal, per NFL.com, is to, quote, maintain the offense. Darnold's June assessment, per the team site: not much of a transition, a couple different wrinkles, and a coordinator whose command has been, quote, incredible. The pieces mostly return: Jaxon Smith-Njigba — the league's reigning Offensive Player of the Year, per the team's February awards coverage — Cooper Kupp retained, Rashid Shaheed re-signed for three years in March. The backfield is the reshuffle: Kenneth Walker left for Kansas City in free agency, Zach Charbonnet rehabs a January ACL, and Seattle spent the 30-second pick on Jadarian Price. Contract mechanics say the team already voted: his 15-million-dollar roster bonus for this season vested in February, per ESPN, and there's no extension by front-office policy, per Seattle beat reporting.

  The price: QB22 at pick one-35 for the 20-fourth quarterback by rate and fourteenth by total — the market is paying his rate stats and giving the durability away free. Our verdict: no call. Eight years of a player's own base rate beats one confetti-covered outlier, and the price sits exactly on the base. The caveat, both ways: continuity is real — same receivers, same scheme by design — so the floor is sturdier than a typical QB22; and if the Minnesota version ever reappears behind this roster, it won't cost pick one-35 for long.

  Watch the completion rate through September — his 68 percent was the profile's engine — and how often Seattle asks him to throw past 30 attempts, because the run game's churn is the one variable the continuity plan didn't keep. If he's one of your guys, this show exists for your whole roster — every player, every week, all season.

• 2025 ReviewMay 11, 2026

  Sam Darnold 2025 Season in Review

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  Show notes & transcript

  Sam Darnold finished 2025 as the number 14 quarterback in total fantasy points and the number 25 quarterback in points per game — and that gap is the whole story. He played all 17 games for a 14-and-3 Super Bowl winning team, threw for over 4,000 yards, and ranked as one of the most efficient passers in football. In fantasy terms? Volume-light, touchdown-modest, occasionally turnover-prone, hanging in the low-end-starter tier because he never missed a Sunday. Seattle built around a punishing two-back committee and a target-hog number one receiver in Jaxon Smith-Njigba — Darnold was the conductor, not the engine. He flashed real ceiling when the deep ball connected, but stacked enough single-digit duds to drag his per-game number into the basement of starting quarterbacks.

  Now let's dig into the numbers, because the real-football Darnold and the fantasy Darnold lived in two different neighborhoods. He completed 67.7 percent of his 477 attempts for 4,048 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. His adjusted net yards per attempt of 7.4 ranked fourth among qualified passers, and his completion percentage over expected sat at plus 4.3 — also fourth in the league. Genuinely elite passing efficiency. The fantasy profile killed it: 12th in passing touchdowns despite that efficiency, almost nothing on the ground with 95 rushing yards and zero rushing scores across 17 games, and boom-or-bust week to week. He averaged 13.8 points per game but posted single-digit outings in seven of 17 starts, including a 4.3-point disaster against the Rams in Week 11 where he threw four interceptions. The ceiling games were real — 27.6 against Tampa Bay, 27.2 at Washington, 22.3 at Atlanta — but they were islands in a sea of 8-to-16-point afternoons.

  One play captures the season. Week 5 against Tampa Bay, fourth quarter, 3:25 left, fourth-and-2 from the Buccaneers' 21, tie game at 28. Out of no-huddle, Darnold dropped a 21-yard touchdown to Tory Horton down the left side — a fourth-down score worth more than four expected points. That was his four-touchdown, 27.6-point ceiling game, the night the efficiency numbers screamed loudest. Seattle still lost 38 to 35. Darnold still threw a pick. Brilliant, productive, a little messy around the edges — the season in one snap.