ESPN's Dan Orlovsky is known for many things. One is that he ran out of the back of the end zone in his first start as a quarterback in the NFL in 2008. Thankfully, his extreme lack of awareness has not rolled over to his current thoughts on football, including some about Seattle Seahawks QB Sam Darnold.
Darnold led his team to a 14-3 record in his first season with the team and the top seed in the NFC. Seattle won the NFC West by two games, and the division is one of the best in the NFL. Darbold wasn't always perfect, of course, but he was good enough.
He ranked in the top 10 in touchdown passes (25 - ninth), completion percentage (67.7 - seventh), and game-winning drives (4 - fifth). Is he a top ten quarterback? One would assume so based on his statistics. Some still doubt he is capable of consistently winning big games, but Orlovsky certainly believes in him.
Dan Orlovsky confirms what many Seattle Seahawks fans thought about Sam Darnold
He said as much on a recent episode of ESPN's First Take while also taking a strange dig at the New York Jets. Darnold was drafted in the first round by New York in 2018, but the team gave up on him after the 2020 season and traded him to the Carolina Panthers.
Orlovsky said, "I believe in Sam Darnold, I think he's a top-10 quarterback in this league, and I think the Jets should be embarrassed that they let him walk out of their building."
The former quarterback did offer that he wasn't fully bought-in on Darnold until the last several weeks, however, as he had seen the Seahawks' quarterback make too many confusing mistakes. To be fair, Darnold has made some baffling throws over the course of the season, especially against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 11, but he has cleaned up most of his miscues recently.
In fact, while Seattle's defense dominated the San Francisco 49ers in Week 18 to take the NFC West title, if Sam Darnold tried to do too much in the game, San Francisco might still have won. Instead, Darnold took what the defense gave him and was fine with leading his team on long drives with a run-heavy focus.
If Darnold continues to play as efficiently throughout the playoffs as he did at the end of the season, the Seattle Seahawks have a real chance to make a run at the Super Bowl and win it. He will need some help as he cannot win a championship on his own, but nearly every other QB ever would need the same kind of assistance.