Sam Darnold's character has guided him here
Darnold's consistency, humility and toughness pushed him through difficult years to a playoff date with the Rams on Monday
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — Sam Darnold usually handles press conferences like a guy who started his career dealing with the New York media. He isn’t showing his cards, he isn’t making headlines. But days before his first playoff game as an NFL quarterback, Darnold was smiling and laughing in front of the Twin Cities press while telling a story from back in the day.
When Darnold was a sophomore in high school, he wasn’t the starting quarterback. They had a senior QB and a need for a playmaker, so he played wide receiver. On defense, he started at linebacker. In a game against El Toro High School, Darnold caught a touchdown on a slant route and then turned around on the next series and intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown.
The Vikings quarterback beamed as he told the story and pantomimed the way he tipped the ball to himself for the pick-six.
“They ran a screen and I sniffed it out,” Darnold said. “They were trying to throw it over me, I tipped it to myself, caught it, and ran it back for six…it was fun, man. That was something I'll always remember.”
“It was a Gink,” Darnold added laughing, reference linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel’s two pick-sixes this season. “I didn’t necessarily have the hair.”
What about the end zone celebration?
The Darnold answer you would expect: “Just flip it to the ref.”
This week’s press conference was one of several cracks in Darnold’s stoic disposition. After a 377-yard performance against the Green Bay Packers, teammates lifted him up on their shoulders. He joked that he was like Ricky Bobby from the movie Talladega Nights and didn’t know what to do with his hands. Against the Atlanta Falcons, Darnold threw five touchdowns and in the waning moments of the game he had a rare emphatic celebration on the video board that drew the biggest roar from the crowd of the season.
Darnold’s high school coach Jaime Ortiz was inside US Bank Stadium to see him light up the Falcons and pump up the crowd.
“Usually not a lot of emotion from Sam but he let it go for about 20 seconds there,” Ortiz said over the phone. “It was good to see him show a little emotion. It was a 20 second glimpse of him enjoying the moment.”
After the game Ortiz went down to the locker room to congratulate his former player.
“What you see now is what you saw in high school,” Ortiz said. “He still dresses the same, he still talks the same.”
The more you dig into Darnold’s personality and past, the easier it is to understand how he was able to make his way through years of struggles in New York and Carolina to find redemption in Minnesota. It makes more sense how he could go from winning just 21 of 55 starts with two of the most inept franchises in the sport to leading the Vikings to a 14-3 season behind his 35 touchdowns and 4,300 yards passing.
The explanation for Darnold working his way back from a difficult first six years to his career begins with his upbringing in the sport. So many quarterbacks today are raised to be QB1s from the time they can hold a pigskin. They have individual QB trainers and helicopter parents and offers from D1 schools by age 13. That’s the opposite of how Darnold came to be a USC quarterback.
He didn’t have a chance to start at quarterback for San Clemente until the end of his sophomore year, which meant that he spent that season building other skills at linebacker and receiver.
“His experience playing wide receiver and playing linebacker, it gave him the better sense of defenses and coverages and what they’re looking at and what the receivers are going through,” Ortiz said.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell sees Darnold’s natural athleticism that was forged in his early days of playing the game become a big factor in the team’s success this year.
“I just think just the baseline athleticism that we've seen, whether it was the Atlanta play where he beats a free runner in the protection and finds Justin [Jefferson] for that huge play, there's been countless first downs he's been able to steal with his legs,” O’Connell said. “In Seattle, getting that first down and then able to make the throw to Justin late in the game, on the move, climbing the pocket, taking a hit. He's a big, strong, athletic guy that throws it really, really well.”
O’Connell has also talked extensively throughout the year about Darnold’s ability to keep battling through adversity that he’s faced along the way. Whether it was leading game-winning drives or bouncing back from a three-interception game in Jacksonville.
Vikings linebacker Blake Cashman was not aware that his teammate had once played his position.
“It's like character mindset, I think Sam, he's a tough quarterback,” Cashman said. “He's very gritty and he's the ultimate competitor and he wants to be perfect in everything he does. So I can see the resemblance in life as a linebacker. Linebackers are kind of the quarterbacks of the defense. So the defense, they have to be able to communicate with the front guys in the game line and and the back end too back. So I can kind of see that.”
Tackle Brian O’Neill said he wished Darnold would stop trying to be a linebacker when he needs to slide while scrambling but he wasn’t shocked by his QB’s background at a hard-nosed position.
“No surprise there, he's got a little dawg in him,” O’Neill said. “If he's going to the sideline he's not just gonna lose three yards, he's gonna go for that extra yard, right? Little linebacker mentality.”
Darnold doesn’t exactly think about his past at other positions the same way as his coaches or teammates do. He remembers picking off passes and scoring touchdowns as being a really good time and forging his joy for the game.
“In Pop Warner and early in high school, catching touchdowns and as a linebacker being able to come downhill and hit somebody, that was always really fun,” Darnold said. “Catching a pick and taking it back to the house, those are all the fun things about football that as a quarterback, you don't necessarily get to enjoy all those things anymore, but those are the things as a kid that I really got to enjoy growing up playing football.”
When Darnold did become a high school quarterback, he ascended quickly. He had multiple five-touchdown games as a junior and interest started picking up steam. He wasn’t exactly prepared for the attention. Back in those days, college coaches weren’t allowed to send recruits texts so Ortiz had to convince his young QB to create a Facebook page so coaches could reach out to him there.
Darnold went for 3,000 passing yards, 39 touchdowns, along with 800 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns as a senior. Still, he wasn’t doing all the things that typical four-star QBs do.
“When he was a senior and he was an Elite 11 quarterback going to USC and he was approached by a bunch of different 7-on-7 coaches who wanted him to come lead their 7-on-7 teams and he was like, ‘they want me to go to Vegas to play fake football? Nah I’m good, I want to stay with my teammates and practice.’ And that’s what he did,” Ortiz said.
When Darnold arrived at USC, their defensive coordinator still wanted him to play linebacker. He made the decision to stay at quarterback despite beginning his career behind five-star recruit Max Browne, who had been Gatorade Player of the Year in Washington in back-to-back seasons.
Over the phone, Browne recalled how Darnold introduced himself to everyone on the USC campus.
“The first scrimmage he ever had at USC, I’ll never forget,” Browne said. “I was two years older than him so I was a redshirt sophomore and I was tracking toward it being my job next season so naturally you’re aware of the young guys behind you. Sam was the late-bloomer guy and he came in and did a classic Sam running around deep ball throw that ends up being his style nowadays. Our coach Tee Martin was like, ‘Ahhh, that’s a young Brett Favre right there! That’s a young Brett Favre!’”
“To everyone on the USC practice field, that was the wake-up moment to who Sam is and what his playing style would be,” Browne continued. “That’s a comp [to Favre] that I don’t hear people make but that was the first one that sticks for me and a bunch of USC people who were on that field.”
Browne explained that playing quarterback at USC came along with a ton of pressure. Consider that he and Darnold weren’t that far removed from the likes of Matt Leinart setting the gold standard for USC quarterback play and their predecessor Cody Kessler had thrown 88 TDs to 19 INTs over three years as a starter. Yet Darnold didn’t seem to feel it the same way others did.
“You could imagine at a place like USC, the quarterbacks who come there on scholarship, it’s a bit of, ‘hey I’ve been dreaming of this and working toward this since I was 5-years old’ …there’s a certain intensity that comes with all those guys and I was one of them where every rep is so precious at USC and you have to make the most of it and it can be a pressure cooker environment. I never got that sense from Sam,” Browne said. “He was always, ‘hey, it’s a game and my personality is that I’m just going to let it rip.’”
Browne opened up the 2016 season as USC’s starter but Darnold took over and took the Trojans’ offense to a stratosphere that they hadn’t lived in since Leinart. They averaged 37 points and 518 yards per game, while Darnold set the school record for most passing touchdowns by a freshman with 26. In the Rose Bowl, he led a 52-49 win over Saquon Barkley’s Penn State team and came within three yards of the school record for single-game passing.
“Sam transitioned the easiest of any quarterback that I ever played with from high school to college in terms of speed of the game, learning the playbook and things like that and I thought it came down to his mentality,” Browne said. “He never really read into the stakes of things and the pressure. I think that comes down to his wiring. He’s as level-headed as they come and it helped him out over the last few years.”
Darnold’s former QB competitor at USC said that normally QBs who were jockeying for the starting spot wouldn’t be all that friendly toward each other but in Darnold’s case, he and Browne remain friends.
Browne is now a broadcaster, calling college games on The CW Network and creating YouTube content about football. He has made videos arguing that Darnold just needed the right situation and has enjoyed watching that opinion come to life. It wasn’t just based on seeing Darnold play up close, he figured that his former teammate had the personality to keep letting it rip, no matter what happened in the past.
“He walks into every room with no ego and he can walk into anywhere and hang out with someone who’s hardcore football or someone who is a completely different walk of life, it’s a big part of why I thought he’d get this resurrection,” Browne said. “I think a lot of those top quarterbacks, when you’re a big-time recruit you start buying into your press clippings and drinking the Kool Aid and thinking your s— doesn’t stink but I feel like Sam never, ever, ever bought into that and when he was put through the ringer with the Jets, I think it allowed him to not get so low like you see with some guys.”
When Darnold was selected No. 3 overall by the Jets, his anti-ego disposition was represented on draft night. He invited Ortiz, his college coach Clay Helton and position coach Tyson Helton along with two high school teammates. While other QBs celebrated with afterparties, Darnold’s agent ordered 20 pizzas for his friends and family to eat in the hotel lobby.
“For him to realize that it wasn’t advisors and PR directors, it was his high school friends and high school coach and his college coaches, that’s Sam,” Ortiz said.
Darnold’s easy-going style has played out in his favor in a bunch of different ways. Last year when he went to San Francisco, he made the most of the opportunity as Brock Purdy’s backup, learning from head coach Kyle Shanahan and growing from the different perspective.
“I think he had a chance to hit the reset button,” Ortiz said. “In Sam’s entire playing career there’s probably only two times that he wasn’t an active participant, junior year he broke his foot and his one year in San Francisco. That was an opportunity to see how other guys study and prepare and take that opportunity to learn and grow and apply it to what he does with the Vikings.”
This spring and summer, Darnold was right back in the same situation he once was when battling against Browne at USC. While he and rookie JJ McCarthy were set to compete during OTAs and training camp, Darnold and the QBs went on a golfing trip to get to know each other. Before McCarthy got hurt, the QB competition had all the drama of a walk on the beach.
Darnold’s mindset has been exactly what the Vikings needed out of their leader this year. During the Vikings’ path to 14 wins and a date with the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the playoffs, O’Connell has seen Darnold smooth out the roller coaster of an NFL season.
“I think the way he's handled success this year has been impressive,” O’Connell said. “And the way he's handled the adversity and then immediately responded to take us on another win streak. That's because of the consistency of that position. It's so important to your whole team.”
Where does it come from? Darnold cites his upbringing.
“I think my dad is the person who taught me that,” he said. “Just watching him go to work every single day and do the things that he does, he's so consistent in the way that he works. I think that's kind of where I learned it.”
Darnold noted that his dad is a plumber who is still working these days.
O’Neill said that there is real, tangible value to Darnold’s consistent approach to the game.
“That's whose voice we're listening to, that's who delivers any messaging from the sidelines… that's the person who calls the plays in the huddle, and who says the cadence at the line of scrimmage,” O’Neill said. “All those little interactions add up and you can feel the way somebody is and where their head is at. And the fact that his is always in the same place, is a really comforting feeling.”
The Vikings are going to need that comforting feeling in a bizarre atmosphere during the biggest game of Darnold’s career on Monday night. Despite winning 14 games, the Vikings are forced to go on the road to Arizona, where Darnold’s first playoff game of his NFL career is being played due to wildfires in Los Angeles. He will need to lead them through whatever type of atmosphere the Glendale stadium presents and whatever type of pressure the moment presents and whatever type of challenges the Rams’ defensive line presents. And he has to do it amidst all the debates about what the game means for his future with the Vikings or elsewhere.
That’s a lot.
Is he nervous?
“It's exciting, man,” Darnold said smiling. “To be able to step into an environment like we're gonna step into on Monday night, it's just exciting. All the guys in that locker room are very excited about it.”
Yep. That’s Sam Darnold. Ready to let it rip.
One of the cooler redemption stories in a long time regardless of the outcome tonight. Hopefully he can cap it off with another run of elite play.
Whatever happens tonight it’s been a hell of a fun ride.