How Sam Darnold and Drake Maye got to the Super Bowl

SAN FRANCISCO — Sam Darnold and Drake Maye were both selected third overall in their respective NFL drafts.

But that’s where the similarities end between the two quarterbacks who will square off in Super Bowl 60 when the Seahawks take the field against the Patriots at Levi’s Stadium.

The roads Darnold and Maye took to get here could not be more different.

And their respective stories are a cautionary tale about unrealistic expectations, the importance of patience, the role organizations play in quarterbacks’ success or failure, and how life and sports almost always come down to circumstance.

“It’s a team game,” said Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. “You need not just receivers and protection and running backs, you need a defense. You need special teams. You need coaches. You need evaluators. You need to draft really well. There’s so many pieces that have to fall around you as a quarterback to have the success you’re looking for.”

All those pieces weren’t in place the moment Maye landed in New England as the third overall pick in the 2024 draft. But a savvy and astute Patriots organization immediately sized up its deficiencies during Maye’s rookie season and made sweeping changes to the coaching staff and roster to set the former North Carolina star up for success in year two.

Mike Vrabel was hired as the head coach to replace Jerod Mayo. The club invested in the offensive line through free agency and the draft, traded for veteran wide receiver Stefon Diggs, and spent significant money rebuilding the defense.

They also brought back Josh McDaniels as their offensive coordinator, pairing up a trusted and experienced teacher and developer with their young quarterback.

McDaniels opened an entirely new world for Maye, who threw for 2,276 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions as a rookie. He has been far better under McDaniels by throwing for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.

Proving the point, once again, that coaching absolutely matters.

“I think he’s so great at preparing me during the week for those little things that come up during the games, and also at the same time of explaining why, ‘Hey, we’re doing this because of what they do, or we’re doing this because I think we can take advantage of how they do this,’” Maye said. “He’s great at coaching my position, and he’s one of the best in the business, and just thankful every day to work with him.”

The result was a surprising Patriots run to the Super Bowl and Maye emerging as a legitimate MVP candidate.

Maye has earned every bit of praise that has come his way. But his success is an organizational win far more than an individual one. It always is when it comes to young quarterbacks, many of who are the beneficiaries or victims of the competence of the team that selects them.

“Your pick is wasted if you don’t give that player the tools around them to be successful,” said Cousins. “You’ve got to get the pieces around them. And that isn’t even just a head coach. That’s the personnel evaluator. The rest of the picks in that draft. The development of the guys who were drafted in the past. Signing free agents that can help complement them.”

None of which were available to the 28-year-old Darnold earlier in his career when he flamed out with two different teams before reaching his fifth season in the NFL. In retrospect, his failures were far more the result of the dysfunction of the Jets and Panthers than his own shortcomings.

His career revival over the last two seasons with the far more capable Vikings and Seahawks proves that. But the stigma of those years in New York and Charlotte will likely follow Darnold for the rest of his career.

Drafted third overall by the Jets in 2018, the former USC star was considered a can’t-miss prospect, blessed with an arm that could sling the ball all over the field, legs that could get him out of trouble, and, when needed, carry him to a key pickup when the pocket collapsed around him.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

In the right situation, with the necessary infrastructure and support system around him, Darnold lives up to the hype, the Jets are perennial playoff contenders, and the Big Apple has its next big star.

But the Jets were in disarray as they approached the fifth — and as it would turn out to be, last year — of Todd Bowles’ failed head coaching tenure. The roster was a mess in terms of talent and leadership. And not untypical of a ship taking on water, it was every man for himself inside a fractured locker room.

It would have been a terrible situation for a seasoned veteran quarterback, let alone a 21-year-old with all of two seasons of college football under his belt.

It was a setup for failure, and it only got worse when the Jets fired Bowles after Darnold’s rookie season and replaced him with Adam Gase, who had flamed out in his first head coaching job in Denver and never once showed any growth or wisdom from the experience.

The dysfunction had an immediate and lasting effect on Darnold. There were some bright spots to be sure. He threw for 334 yards in his second career start, and delivered a 341-yard, three-touchdown gem in the season finale.

But the rookie season was filled with far too many downs, and his second year was derailed by an early-season bout with mononucleosis that he never truly recovered from. The Jets weren’t any better, limping to a 7-9 finish, and Gase proved he wasn’t up to the task of being an NFL head coach.

By year three, Darnold was clearly a broken man, throwing for just 2,208 yards while completing a paltry 59.6 of his passes. He had 11 interceptions against just 9 touchdowns in 12 starts.

It was the classic snowball effect, with things going from bad to worse. Darnold was not equipped to deal with it. Worse, he didn’t have anywhere to turn for real help.

“As a young player, too, early in my career, I was really hard on myself after a bad rep or a bad practice,” Darnold said. “I would let it affect my attitude a little bit.”

With their sights set on drafting Zach Wilson, the Jets dealt Darnold to the Panthers in 2021. It was anything but a fresh new start for Darnold, who was trading one terrible situation for an even worse one.

Matt Rhule was in over his head as a second-year head coach, injuries limited star running back Christian McCaffrey to just seven games, and the Panthers’ offensive talent was among the worst in the league. Darnold suffered a shoulder injury and played only 12 games.

The Panthers added quarterback Baker Mayfield to the mix the following season, introducing a level of confusion to Carolina’s already dysfunctional situation. It all predictably collapsed, costing Rhule his job five games into the season, and sending Darnold in search of direction.

For the first time in his career, though, he was in full control of his future. Rather than chasing money or a team that offered an immediate chance to start, Darnold astutely chose the stability of a 49ers organization and the benefits of learning from a respected coaching staff.

It was less about playing and more about re-learning how to play quarterback. Among his primary teachers was 49ers quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak, with whom he would eventually cross paths with again in Seattle.

Darnold and Kubiak spent countless hours together toiling away in the background. The 49ers were Brock Purdy’s team, and Darnold had no delusions about unseating him. He simply threw himself into Kubiak’s quarterback boot camp.  

“He was not a guy that was a guy that was looking to jump in and take Brock’s spot,” Kubiak said. “He was supporting a quarterback. And all the while, you can see that, just the talent that he had, and how he grew, that season.”

Darnold played only sparingly in San Francisco, but the mental reset from that season would be the catalyst for the career revival he experienced in Minnesota.

The one-year deal Darnold signed with the Vikings was an insurance policy for the club if first-round pick J.J. McCarthy wasn’t ready to start to begin the season. It became far more than that when McCarthy was lost for the year after suffering a preseason knee injury.

Darnold wasn’t just ready for the challenge, he was finally with a team fully prepared to support him.

He led the Vikings to a 14-3 record while throwing for 4,319 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. It didn’t earn him a new deal in Minnesota — the Vikings opted to roll with McCarthy and let Darnold leave in free agency — but the faith it restored in Darnold led him to Seattle, where Kubiak had just been hired as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator.

Now, Kubiak and Darnold are one win away from a Super Bowl championship.

“The only thing that matters is you believe in yourself,” Darnold said. “I knew I could do this at a high level. I knew, at some point, I would get the opportunity. Even if I didn’t, I knew I did everything I could to become a better player, year in and year out.”

It helps, of course, to be in the right situation. Both Super Bowl quarterbacks are proof of that.