Despite some heavy doubters ahead of the 2025 season, the Seattle Seahawks are sitting comfortably at the top of the NFC with a 5-2 record. Much of that doubt stemmed from quarterback Sam Darnold's 2024 comeback campaign, which failed to convince everyone that he is a trusted starter in the NFL.
Of course, Darnold isn’t exactly in the MVP conversation, even if he is playing at a respectable level. He does lead the NFL in yards per attempt and completion and is on pace to excede his career season statistically from a season ago with a better completion percentage and fewer interceptions.
Protecting the football more consistently has been he biggest boon of Darnold’s career comeback. Prior to this season, Darnold had thrown at least 10 interceptions in every season he started at least seven games in. He’s currently on pace to have fewer than 10 this season, though another issue lingers.
Seattle Seahawks' ceiling hinges on Sam Darnold taking one last step forward.
Former Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said on the Brock and Salk podcast recently that he’s impressed with Darnold’s ability to play aggressively down the field while also protecting the ball better than he ever has.
“I think the thing that’s been really encouraging is how well he’s protected the football this year. He’s got four interceptions on the year,” Hasselbeck said. “He’s been protecting the football, protecting the team, protecting the ball and still (doing it) with this cut-it-loose mentality. He’s not little checkdown Charlie. He’s cutting it loose when the ball’s there.”
Still, the issue of fumbling in the pocket has followed Darnold to Seattle. He’s fumbled 49 times in 90 career games, three times this season in seven.
“I think like the last piece is just really protecting the ball in the pocket,” he said. “That’s the next level of really taking your game to kind of like an MVP-type level.”
Darnold came out of USC with his biggest red flag being his tendency to play loosely with the football. He had 36 turnovers in 27 games for the Trojans.
While Darnold has certainly turned a corner with his efficiency as a passer, proving to be one of the most effective gunslingers in the NFL this season, Hasselbeck’s point rings true. The Seahawks are ranked 30th in the NFL in giveaways this season. Considering the defense ranks 12th in takeaways, the 5-2 Seahawks would be considerably more dangerous with fewer turnovers offensively.
Not all of that is on Darnold, of course, but the quarterback leads the charge in emphasizing the importance of protecting the football.