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Hours before Super Bowl 60 kicks off Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks will bus into Levi’s Stadium. They’ll settle into the plush San Francisco 49ers locker room, which has been readied for the NFC champion in this season’s biggest game.
Since the football gods have a sense of humor, the 49ers’ biggest rivals will take over their most sacred space. And although most of the Seahawks are unfamiliar with the room, their most important player knows it well.
Quarterback Sam Darnold spent a transformative season of his career there in 2023. The No. 3 overall pick from the 2018 NFL Draft arrived as a football castaway on a one-year deal to be Brock Purdy’s backup. He left primed for big success: with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, then — after signing a contract worth more than $100 million — with Seattle this season.
Darnold’s 2023 home base, in the most spacious corner of the 49ers locker room with the closest possible proximity to both the snack and equipment rooms, was prime real estate.
On Wednesday, he said he might request the same locker for the Super Bowl that he occupied in his season with the 49ers.
“That might be a good idea, to get some familiarity there,” Darnold said, chuckling. “That was a great spot. It was in the back corner, and I had nothing on the left side, so I could put my backpack down. It was a great spot there — it was really comfortable.”
Perhaps the locker brings good fortune to QBs. Josh Dobbs replaced Darnold as one of Purdy’s backups in 2024 and took over the corner locker. Dobbs will also suit up for this Super Bowl; he’s Drake Maye’s backup for the New England Patriots. Following Dobbs’ departure, Mac Jones took over the coveted locker and delivered a resurgent 2025 season over eight games filling in for an injured Purdy.
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The success stories of both Darnold and Jones helped transform how many view the dynamics of quarterback development in the NFL. Both had been largely written off following vexing struggles with their first teams — Darnold with the New York Jets; Jones with New England — before succeeding in coach Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers offense.
“You need tons of help to allow you to go show how great you can be,” said Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, who struggled to begin his career in Tampa Bay before legendary 49ers coach Bill Walsh traded for him in 1987. “If you do not get that help, you are limited in how great you can be. To be great, you need help. And there are not 32 places in the league today that give you that help. In fact, I wouldn’t say there are 15. The skies parted for Sam when he came to San Francisco.”
Said longtime running back Frank Gore, who played with Darnold in New York late in his career: “When I was with the Jets, I felt bad for Sam. Because I knew what it took for a player to be great and a team to be great, and he didn’t have that over there.”
Even though Darnold started only one game for the 49ers (the regular-season finale, with no playoff implications) he credits his year in the Bay Area — especially, his time in the QB room with Purdy — for setting up much of the success he’s seen in the two seasons since.
“Brock helped me a ton,” Darnold said last summer (opens in new tab). “With certain things of how to prepare and even just watching him play — how he processes on the field and all those certain things. … His poise, whether he made a good play or a bad play — you celebrate on the field with your teammates, you get pumped, but then you come right back to the sideline, and you have the same demeanor. That was something I always admired about Brock.
“And then the other thing is how he prepared. I say this all the time, but I give Brock a ton of credit in showing me the ropes that way. He showed me so much in how to prepare and how to study. He was so helpful that way.”
Darnold said he would let mistakes compound during his early career with the Jets. But words of wisdom from another 49ers great, Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, helped him embrace a more free-flowing mentality that has translated to success on the field.
“Jerry Rice said that he never had a perfect practice or a perfect game,” Darnold said. “And that’s the mindset I try to have. It’s not always going to be perfect. That’s why everybody loves this game, and that’s why it’s some of the best reality TV there is. Because it’s about how can you move on from mistakes to continue to better the team and better yourself.”
Darnold finished with 4,048 passing yards this season, fifth-most in the NFL. His best work has come in the season’s biggest moments, many of which took place in two critical home games against the Los Angeles Rams. One was a regular-season affair in December; Darnold led a game-winning overtime drive that paved the way for Seattle to earn home-field advantage in the playoffs. The second came in the NFC Championship Game rematch against the Rams in which Darnold threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns.
“I was calling and telling people about how good Sam was back in 2020,” Gore said. “I knew he was good because I’ve been around ball for a long time. But in football, it can’t just be you out there.”
No one is more familiar with this dynamic than Young, who became one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time with the dynastic 49ers. Young said Darnold, following his time with the 49ers, resolved to stick with offenses related schematically to Shanahan’s. Minnesota, coached by Kevin O’Connell (a disciple of Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, who worked under Shanahan), qualifies. So does Seattle, where former 49ers assistant Klint Kubiak is the offensive coordinator.
“I remember Sam talking about the impact the year with the 49ers had on his career and how to look at the position,” Young said. “He didn’t realize there was so much help to be had. Once he felt that, he made sure to stay in the family — to Minnesota, and to Seattle with Klint.
“He said, ‘I need to stay in the family, because I now know these guys understand how to make my job easier and tougher on the defense. And now I can show how great I am.’ And that’s exactly what’s happened.”
Gore, a model of durability who played 16 years in the NFL, credited Darnold’s perseverance for earning this shot at daylight — and a return to his old locker room at Levi’s — this time for a game on the grandest stage of them all.
“Anybody who’d have to deal with what he dealt with probably would’ve given up,” Gore said. “But he stuck with it, and he’s in the Super Bowl now.”