The Seattle Seahawks are one win away from clinching the top seed in the NFC, and, therefore, home-field advantage as long as Seattle remains in the postseason. Quarterback Sam Darnold should understand the situation well. He lived it last season.
Part of the knock on Darnold has been that he cannot win the most meaningful games. He didn't disprove that in 2024 when he was playing with the Minnesota Vikings and his team faced the Detroit Lions in the final regular season game for each. Both teams were 14-2, and a Minnesota victory would have pushed the Vikings to the top seed in the playoffs.
Instead, the Lions destroyed Minnesota 31-9, and Darnold was terrible. He was 18 of 41 passing for 166 yards and no touchdowns. The Vikings had to play a road playoff game the next week and lost to the Los Angeles Rams, and Darnold was once again bad.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold reliving 2024 in 2025
In 2025, the Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers are playing out the end of the Vikings and Lions regular season. Entering Week 18, Seattle has one fewer win than San Francisco, but when the teams meet on Saturday at 5 pm PT, the winner of the game will take the NFC West title and the top seed in the NFC.
Sam Darnold has many doubters, even though he's been pretty good this season, but he hasn't truly proven he can win the big games. It gets no bigger than the primetime game between the Seahawks and 49ers. The quarterback needs to play extremely well for Seattle to win, and if he doesn't, many critics will point at Darnold letting a team down again.
In 2024, the quarterback was terrific through 16 games for Minnesota and terrible in the last two, the most games of the season. In 2025, Darnold has been nearly as good as the first part of his Vikings season, though he does lead the NFL with 20 turnovers.
He needs to play clean football throughout the game and not have two or three plays that ruin an otherwise potentially great scenario for the Seahawks. The team has to have complete faith in Darnold because it has no other choice.
If the quarterback plays poorly, the Seattle Seahawks might need to speed up the timeline for when it aggressively pursues another QB1, whether that is through the draft or free agency again. Darnold's issue could mostly be mental, and that is more difficult to overcome than a physical problem.
Thinking positively, however, Sam Darnold could play exceedingly well and help Seattle overcome a 49ers team whose offense is playing fantastically. If the Seahawks' QB1 does do well, he will begin to change the narrative others have written for him that he can't win games that matter the most.