Sam Darnold jumped to No. 21 on the NFL Top 100 Players list after his first season with the Seahawks, a steep rise from No. 72 a year earlier. The ranking, voted on by NFL players, came after he helped Seattle put together a 14-3 regular season and finish with a Super Bowl title.
That jump gives Darnold a clear measure of how much his stock changed in one year. He made his NFL Top 100 debut at No. 72, then followed it with a second straight Pro Bowl selection, another 14-3 season and a postseason run that ended with the Seahawks becoming champions after going through those games without a turnover.
The Seahawks signed Darnold as a free agent last year after trading Geno Smith to the Raiders, and the move quickly turned into one of the league's biggest shifts at quarterback. Darnold led Seattle to the NFC West title and the NFC's top seed, then threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns in the NFC championship game against Matthew Stafford. Across three postseason wins, he finished with 672 yards and five touchdowns without a turnover.
Mike Macdonald praised him after the Super Bowl win over the Patriots, saying Darnold did not care about the labels or the doubts that had followed him. That outside view matched the way his season looked on paper, but Darnold has been just as direct about the parts he wants to clean up.
Early in training camp, he said he thinks he can always get better, and he pointed to throws he would like back in the Super Bowl and earlier games. He said there were issues with moving through his progressions, getting from one side of the field to the other and keeping his feet calm, especially when his base got too wide. For a player who just rose into the top 25, that is the part that matters most next: the ranking shows how far he came, but Darnold is still talking like someone chasing more.
