Seahawks QB Sam Darnold Receives Insulting Update

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold being ranked 100th on ESPN’s list of the top 100 NFL players heading into the 2026 campaign is quite the slight. That placement treats a 14-3 regular season, an NFC title, and a Super Bowl win as a footnote rather than a statement.

ESPN’s panel of 12 analysts and reporters ranked players on expected 2026 performance, not résumé. Their consensus put Darnold at No. 100 with this explanation from Seahawks reporter Brady Henderson

“No quarterback has more wins over the past two seasons than Darnold, who has 31 with the Vikings and Seahawks,” Henderson wrote. “He’d be higher on this list if not for his league-high 20 turnovers in 2025, though he went the final four games without one. One reason Darnold could be better in 2026: This is the first time since 2020 that he returns to the same team as its unquestioned starter.”

The signature stat attached to the ranking is impressive on its face: Darnold went 14-3 as Seattle’s starter after a 14-3 campaign with the Vikings, joining Tom Brady (2003-04) as the only quarterbacks with back-to-back 14-win seasons.

ESPN’s 2026 projections still see him throwing for 4,013 yards, 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Those numbers would be respectable for many starting quarterbacks. They look modest for a Super Bowl winner who just posted 4,048 yards and 25 touchdowns in the regular season.

The Super Bowl itself was not a statistical masterpiece. Darnold completed 19 of 38 passes for 202 yards and one touchdown in the 29-13 victory over New England.

The defense and running game carried the day. That does not erase what preceded it: a 14-3 regular season, a blowout of San Francisco in the divisional round, and a 346-yard, three-touchdown NFC Championship win over the Rams. He finished the postseason without a turnover after leading the league in them during the year.

Turnovers are a fair concern. Twenty of them in 2025 is a lot. Yet the same player who produced those mistakes also produced the wins, the deep playoff run, and a championship.

Ranking him behind 99 other players for the coming season implies those mistakes will define him more than the results. History suggests otherwise.

Quarterbacks who win Super Bowls while managing an imperfect supporting statistical profile are usually given more credit, not parked at the bottom of a top-100 list.

Darnold is 29 and entering Year 2 in the same offense under Mike Macdonald. Continuity is rare in his career. The Seahawks just paid Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Leonard Williams and added pieces around a championship core.

Treating the quarterback who got them there as the 100th-best player in football is less a projection than a lingering skepticism that the résumé has already answered.

A Super Bowl champion who just joined Brady in a two-season win club belongs higher than last place.