After having resuscitated his career in Minnesota last season, quarterback Sam Darnold will try to repeat that success in Seattle.
Darnold has agreed to join the Seahawks, according to multiple reports, in the latest round of quarterback musical chairs around the NFL as free agency begins. It is a three-year deal worth $100.5 million, including $55 million guaranteed, per ESPN and NFL Network.
The Seahawks were in need of a starting quarterback after they traded starter Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders last week.
Multiple teams entered the offseason needing help at quarterback, but the question they faced was whether Darnold’s largely resurgent 2024 season was replicable in 2025. He completed 66% of his passes for 4,319 yards with 35 touchdowns — all career highs — and 12 interceptions in the offensive scheme of Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell, who was voted the NFL’s coach of the year.
In Seattle, Darnold will not have the services of receiver D.K. Metcalf, whom the Seahawks traded to Pittsburgh. What he will have are former first-round pick receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba as a top target and familiarity with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who was on the coaching staff in San Francisco when Darnold was briefly with the 49ers.
Darnold, the third overall draft pick of the New York Jets in 2018, quickly lost favor in New York and bounced between two more franchises before he landed with Minnesota one year ago. Expectations were low; the Vikings had drafted quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the first round and were considering him as a potential Week 1 starter. But after a preseason injury to McCarthy sidelined him for the entire season, Darnold was thrust into the starting job and helped the Vikings to a 14-2 record.
During a seven-game stretch last season, Darnold threw for 18 touchdowns against just two interceptions while completing nearly 68% of his passes, a run that set up the Vikings for an opportunity to earn the NFC’s top playoff seed entering the regular season’s final game.
The way Darnold ended the season most likely affected his market as a free agent, however. The Vikings lost the season finale to Detroit, with Darnold throwing for a season-low 166 yards and no touchdowns and looking rattled by the Lions’ pressure.
Just eight days later, the Los Angeles Rams routed Minnesota in its playoff opener in the wild-card round. Darnold was sacked nine times in the loss, in which he completed 25 of his 40 passes for 245 yards, a touchdown and an interception.