Thoughts from Conference Championship weekend
Sam Darnold proved the world wrong with a stellar performance
By Matthew Coller
Sam Darnold is in the Super Bowl
When the Seattle Seahawks got the ball back after a key fourth down stop late in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Rams, they knew that they were going to need a couple big throws from their quarterback. After performing like a superstar for most of the day, Sam Darnold was faced with another moment where he needed to prove himself to get the respect he deserves.
With 4:21 remaining, he hit Ken Walker for a 15-yard gain. First down. Clock ticking. After a short run and incompletion, 3:20 left, third-and-7. Darnold guided the ball accurately to Cooper Kupp for seven yards. First down. Another run play was stuffed, then Darnold found Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a rollout for 15 more yards. First down.
The Rams committed a holding penalty and the Seahawks were able to run the clock down to 31 seconds left, not giving L.A. enough time to forge a comeback and Darnold’s club advanced to the Super Bowl.
When the dust settled, the QB who everyone called a “choker” last year and claimed that he “turned into a pumpkin” and said that he “can’t do it in the big moments” because he “sees ghosts” took an A-bomb to all of those narratives with 346 yards and three touchdowns and a 127.8 quarterback rating in the win. He outdueled Matthew Stafford, who was absolutely brilliant in defeat with 374 yards and three TDs of his own.
It was the performance that everyone said he couldn’t have and the Vikings didn’t believe he was capable of when they let him walk last offseason.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it when it comes to the 2025 offseason choice the Vikings made to allow Darnold to walk and turn the ball over to JJ McCarthy. They not only misevaluated McCarthy’s readiness, believing he was prepared to take over a 14-win franchise despite having only thrown just over 700 passes since high school and missed all of his rookie season with a torn meniscus but they also appear to have weighed the final two games of 2024 far too heavily in their evaluation. They overvalued the ability to spend in free agency around the QB and undervalued Darnold’s elite arm, toughness, leadership capabilities and resilience.
As Bill Parcells once said: Nobody can ever say that you couldn’t do it because you did it. Nobody can ever say that Darnold wasn’t good enough now. Nobody can ever say that he just got there by game managing. Nobody can ever say that he was just a flash in the pan or the product of somebody else’s coaching or that he isn’t a true franchise quarterback.
For Vikings fans, this moment has to hit like a ton of bricks. The Herschel Walker trade will always be discussed as the worst decision the team ever made but letting the Super Bowl starting QB who ranked in the top 10 by just about every metric this season and then put on a Tom Brady-like performance in the NFC Championship game is about as gutting as it gets for fans that have waited a lifetime for their club to get back to the Super Bowl.
It puts the spotlight directly on this regime in 2026. Having gone four years without a playoff win and then letting the Super Bowl staring QB walk for a third-round comp pick wouldn’t be so rough if they didn’t finish 26th in scoring this year and 30th in team QB rating in 2025. If McCarthy had taken them to the playoffs and looked the part, then it might have been reflective of the Diggs-for-Jefferson trade where everybody goes home happy. Instead, the brass is talking about competition for McCarthy next year, leaving everyone to wonder how this isn’t just another trip around the purgatory track they’ve been on for many years.
One more thing to note: Sam Darnold has never said a negative word about the Vikings along this entire journey. He hasn’t breathed an “I told you so” or dunked on the teams that let him walk in the past.
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