Seahawks' Sam Darnold addresses nightmare end to Vikings tenure

Sam Darnold received a three-year, $100.5M contract from the Seattle Seahawks back in March after he guided the 2024 Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record. 

However, Darnold's nightmare outings over the final two games of his Minnesota tenure have some wondering if he will forever come up short on the sport's biggest stages. 

During a recent chat with Michael Silver of The Athletic, Darnold spoke about all that went wrong for the Vikings during their Week 18 loss at the Detroit Lions and their wild-card playoff defeat at the Los Angeles Rams.

"For lack of a better term, we laid an egg as an offense," Darnold directly said. "And I think, for me personally, that sucks. I felt like we were a really good team, but at the end of the day — and this is gonna sound a little pessimistic — but when you get to the end of it and you don’t win the whole thing, you failed. I feel like I could have played way better, to be completely honest with you. I feel I didn’t play up to my standard. I truly feel that way. I feel like if I would have just played better, I would’ve been able to give the team a chance."

Darnold established himself as the top signal-caller of this year's free-agency class when, per ESPN stats, he finished the 2024 regular season ranked fifth in the NFL with 35 passing touchdowns and fifth with 4,319 yards through the air. However, he completed 18-of-41 passes for 166 yards with no touchdowns in the matchup versus the Lions that determined the champions of the NFC North and the No. 1 seed for the playoffs. Darnold then took nine sacks, tossed an interception and lost a second-quarter fumble that was returned for a score against the Rams. 

For an article published on Thursday, ESPN's Brady Henderson mentioned that Darnold's 7.7 percent sack rate was the 10th highest among qualified quarterbacks for the regular season. Critics may say such a stat, coupled with Darnold's last two games with Minnesota, shows he could once again see "ghosts" with Seattle. 

"I learned a lot last season, from those two games especially," Darnold added. "At the end of the day, you go through those experiences, you learn, and you get better. I try every single day to get better. That’s it."

If he doesn't "get better" from what he was during his last two games, a Seattle team that made quarterback Jalen Milroe a third-round draft pick earlier this spring could think about moving on from Darnold as soon as next offseason.