Even with a turnover-free postseason, Darnold also pointed to his 20 regular-season turnovers (14 INTs and six fumbles lost) as an area he can improve.
“Another area to grow is the turnovers. I thought I had too many turnovers last year,” he said. “So just continuing to — kind of like I did in the playoffs — continuing to have the right mindset on first and second down, keep the big boys happy and get the ball out of my hands.”
It’s still a far better place than Darnold has ever found himself in the NFL. He said he still regrets not being able to get the job done at the start of his career with the Jets.
“I think the dream for a player is you want to stay with the same franchise for your whole career,” he said. “Maybe not; at least that’s what I was kinda thinking. Even if we were trashing New York, I wanted to go and make it right. I wanted to go and win Super Bowls with the Jets. Obviously, that didn’t happen, that wasn’t in the stars for me, but it’s what I wanted; that was the dream.”
Darnold also talked about the long interim phase of his career prior to Seattle, going from the Jets to the Panthers to the 49ers to the Vikings before earning another shot at leading a team. He said his Minnesota experience was “amazing” but he also saw the writing on the wall following the Vikings’ 14-3 season in 2024, with the club offering Darnold a “low” one-year deal as J.J. McCarthy waited in the wings.
“For me, I think having success in a place and getting to know the guys in the locker room, of course, you want to make that work,” Darnold said. “But shortly into negotiations, it was like, alright, this isn’t going to be a spot.”
Darnold said he wasn’t “spiteful” and understood former Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s position.
“I get where the GM was coming from, I totally do,” he said. “You see it with a lot of teams. … These rookie quarterbacks and their rookie deals, trying to strike hot while you have a rookie quarterback so that you can pay other guys around him to get the team really good. I get that part of it, and I get, also, drafting a guy in the first round and having a belief that he’s the guy.
“So for me, I kind of had to put that hat where it’s like, I understand. I totally get where they’re coming from. Going back to the beginning, everything happens for a reason. There is a part of that, too, where it’s like, OK, I’m just not supposed to be in Minnesota this next year, and that’s OK with me.”
His instincts served him right. Even with Darnold seemingly confirming during the interview that the Steelers were another option he had considered, the fit in Seattle ended up being right. He came up short of perfection, but Darnold’s Super Bowl triumph made the trying process well worth it in the end.
Leave a Reply