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Feb 6, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Sam Darnold and Katie Hoofnagle on the red carpet before Super Bowl LIX NFL Honors at Saenger Theatre. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Seattle Seahawks' Sam Darnold: Leader Of Most Undervalued Team In NFL?

Originally posted on USC Trojans on SI | By Kyron Samuels | Last updated Jun 18, 2025 8:43 AM ET

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold is coming off the best season of his career, where he was named to the Pro Bowl as a representative of the NFC. The former USC Trojan also earned MVP votes and Comeback Player of the Year votes for his stellar play. Not only was he great as an individual, but he also helped lead the Minnesota Vikings to one of the best regular seasons in their franchise history. While the playoff run was short-lived, Darnold’s year can’t be underappreciated.

After signing a three-year contract with the Seahawks, Darnold is now the starting quarterback for a franchise looking to return to the fold as a perennial playoff team with a chance to contend. Despite losing some key players to free agency, the Seahawks added enough talent through their acquisitions and drafting to where they should be a team to be taken seriously. On a PFF list listing the five most overlooked teams in the NFL, the Darnold-led Seahawks were featured.

“This offseason brought a lot of turnover to the Seahawks, particularly on offense. They’ll enter 2025 with a new offensive coordinator, a new quarterback, and two new wide receivers on the outside. Despite all the moving pieces, headlined by quarterback Sam Darnold, Seattle appears to have a clear vision for its offense under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak,” said PFF analyst Dalton Wasserman.

“Darnold is familiar with Kubiak from their time in San Francisco in 2023, where Kubiak was his quarterbacks coach. Darnold is also coming from a similar outside-zone run-heavy system in Minnesota, in which he thrived last season," Wasserman said.

Two key elements of Darnold’s game should stick out to Kubiak. First, Darnold’s 88.0 play-action PFF passing grade in 2024 ranked him fifth among qualified passers. Second, Darnold earned a solid 91.5 deep PFF passing grade and completed 48% of his deep passes last season, the latter of which ranked him second in the league, behind Russell Wilson,” Wasserman continued.

Darnold will be the driving force behind the team’s success this season. If he can continue to keep chopping wood and progressing as a quarterback, the talent is there for the Seahawks to have an explosive offense to match h their pesky, opportunistic defense that has a bevy of disruptive playmakers. Darnold’s a bit of a gunslinger, but he’s already impressing the Seahawks staff with this ability and arm talent.

"Sam's extremely talented," Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said. "Obviously a great thrower of the football. His mobility sticks out, his toughness, his maturity. The thing about Sam that really sticks out is just he's an A-plus teammate. Elevates those around him. The guys he plays with respect him because when your best players are your hardest workers, that's what you really strive for, and that's what you want as a coach, and Sam has that in spades."

The Seahawks are overlooked at the moment, but if Sam Darnold plays to his ability, they’ll be inevitable.

This article first appeared on USC Trojans on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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