Why Seahawks believe Sam Darnold is no longer seeing 'ghosts' amid Super Bowl run

Arguably the most infamous moment of Sam Darnold's New York Jets career (2018-2020) involved the quarterback seeing "ghosts" during an outing to forget against the New England Patriots in 2019. Darnold again seemed to be haunted in what became the final two starts of his Minnesota Vikings tenure last season. 

More recently, the worst aspects of Darnold's game arose when he threw a season-worst four interceptions in Seattle's 21-19 Week 11 loss to the Los Angeles Rams this past November. For a piece published on Friday, The Athletic's Mike Jones detailed how Darnold's reaction to the Rams game showed people within the Seahawks that the signal-caller wouldn't fall apart. 

Sam Darnold has been "a stone-cold killer" with Seahawks

"I didn’t feel an ounce of panic from him," Seahawks backup quarterback Drew Lock said about Darnold. "He knew his mistakes. He knew what he wanted to do better, but man, he was a stone-cold killer the whole time. Nothing was shaking him, even the next day."

While the StatMuse website shows that Darnold committed a league-high 20 turnovers during the regular season, Seattle hasn't lost since the two-point defeat at SoFi Stadium on Nov. 16. Meanwhile, Darnold was responsible for zero giveaways over the Seahawks' pair of playoff victories. 

"He’s got a short memory, but he’s aggressive, so I think that’s just the way God built him," Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said about Darnold. "He’s an aggressive guy, and if he makes a mistake, he can go out and gun it the next play. If something happens in a game negatively, you feel very confident calling a pass on the very next play because Sam’s going to do it like we talked about that week in practice. No worries about his confidence. Ever."

Sam Darnold feeding off belief Seahawks have in him

A different story mentioned how Seahawks coaches have repeatedly encouraged Darnold to "protect the ball, listen to your feet and find the open guy" during games. He has clearly benefited from such pointers, but his redemption tour goes beyond his improved throwing mechanics and footwork. 

"Sam’s just been so resilient," Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald added. "He’s so steadfast in his approach. I think he’s confident in who he is. I think he understands how much his team believes in him and has his back. So just keep, keep firing away, man. You know, keep being you, go to the next play. He’s the same guy after he has a perfect passer rating, and not strutting around like he just solved all the world’s problems."

The Super Bowl LX showdown versus the Patriots will obviously be the biggest game, to date, of Darnold's life. How he reacts if ghosts from his past show up at Levi's Stadium could determine whether or not he finds himself hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night.