The Seattle Seahawks have had a magical season thus far. Winning 14 games and earning the NFC's top seed is a flat-out masterful start, but the work has really only just begun. Thanks to a balanced roster and high-powered offense and defense, the Seahawks now have to win just two home games to make the Super Bowl this year.
This team really doesn't have many flaws overall, and they've seen a boost in QB play thanks to Sam Darnold, who has been a massive upgrade over Geno Smith, who fizzled out with the Raiders in 2025. Sam Darnold's breakout 2024 season set the stage for a nice payday from Seattle this past offseason.
However, Darnold hit free agency and switched teams for a reason - he also led the Minnesota Vikings to 14 wins and a playoff berth, but two rough outings to end the year seemed to be enough for the Vikings to let him leave and turn the page to JJ McCarthy. Depending on what happens with the Seahawks in the playoffs, could the front office have a massive Sam Darnold decision to make?
The Seahawks have a financial 'out' in Sam Darnold's contract after 2025
Sam Darnold played well this year. Here are his regular season statistics in 2025:
14-3
323/477 (67.7%)
4,048 yards
25 touchdowns
14 interceptions
99.1 passer rating
Let's look at his statistics from Week 11 through the end of the regular season now:
7-1
161/249 (64.7%)
1,786 yards
8 touchdowns
8 interceptions
83.2 rating
Seattle has still won seven of their last eight games, but the overall passing efficiency from Darnold has dropped. He last had a game with a 100+ passer rating on December 7th and hit this mark just twice over the final seven games after doing it six times over the first 10 outings.
And even if you take that brutal four-interception outing out of the picture, he was still completing just 64.4% of his passes with a 91.2 passer rating. I say all of this to ask a question - what do the Seahawks do with Sam Darnold if he has another brutal playoff outing, and the team goes one-and-done?
We saw that happen in 2024 with the Minnesota Vikings, and, statistically speaking, the veteran QB is not playing nearly as well as he was in the first half of the season.
Furthermore, the contract the Seahawks signed Darnold to in the offseason is very team-friendly, as they could easily designate him as a post-June 1st cut in 2026 and save $27.5 million on their cap while absorbing just $6.4 million in dead money.
Yet another layer to this is Klint Kubiak, someone who Sam Darnold has played well under. If Kubiak gets a head coaching job this cycle, could that hurt Darnold's chances to continue playing well with Seattle beyond 2025?
You'd have to think that the front office is considering every possible scenario. Sam Darnold has gone 28-6 over the past two seasons as a starter in the NFL, which is an impossibly good record, but there are limitations with this player, and if he can't play up to the playoff moment here in 2025, the Seahawks might have to consider making a bold move...