Sam Darnold is a week away from playing in his first career Super Bowl when he leads the Seahawks to Santa Clara, California, to face the Patriots.
After tough stints with the Jets and the Panthers, just a few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine Darnold preparing to play in such a monumental game, but after time with the 49ers, the Vikings and currently the Seahawks, times have changed for the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
And now, several years removed from his time with Gang Green and Carolina, Darnold looks back at all the struggles there as “part of my journey.”
“I think just being able to handle it at this point in my career, too, I feel like, even mentally, I handle it a little differently internally than I used to. Because I realize it is part of the journey and it is part of who I am,” Darnold said on Friday on “The Dan Patrick Show.” “I paid a little bit more attention to it. I invested a little more thought into what happened in the past.
“Like, ‘OK, I threw this pick against this coverage back in 2019, I’m not going to do that again.’ It’s like, no, sometimes mistakes happen. You learn from it, and you don’t want to make the same mistakes again, but sometimes throughout your career, especially if it’s a long career, those things are going to happen.”
Darnold went 13-25 during his three seasons in the Big Apple, which were marred by injury and poor play before the Jets eventually sent him to Carolina.
He continued to trend in the wrong direction during his two seasons with the Panthers before making his way to San Fran, which started a turnaround for him.
“Just being able to move on and learn from those experiences, but move on. And the days in New York, the days in Carolina, those were part of my journey, and they’re part of my experience, and I loved every single part of it,” he said. “Yeah, there were some lows that sucked, I’m not gonna lie to ya, and that’s part of it though. I learned so much from that, and I’m able to move on. It’s funny, after every single game we lost, or things that didn’t go well, I was able to wake up the next day and see the sun rise and go into the building and see my teammates and have fun with my coaches.
“That’s a part of life, and I think being able to realize that at this point in my career, it allows you to take it one day at a time and enjoy every single little moment that you get with your teammates, because as we all say, we’re never with the same team year-in, year-out. You may be with some similar guys if you stick with the same team, but there’s never all 70 that are the same throughout a season, so you try to enjoy it while you can.”
Over the past two seasons, Darnold has gone 28-6 and during the regular season this year, he threw for 4,048 yards and 25 touchdowns.