Feb. 9, 2026, 8:06 a.m. PT

Sam Darnold has something fellow USC football legend Carson Palmer does not: a Super Bowl ring as a starting quarterback. Darnold completed his journey to the pinnacle of the NFL with a Super Bowl 60 victory for the Seattle Seahawks over the New England Patriots. Palmer made several playoff appearances with the Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals but never made the big game.

Darnold has what Palmer lacks

We can’t get past this one basic truth: Sam Darnold has achieved every NFL football player’s ultimate dream: winning the Super Bowl. It’s something Carson Palmer doesn’t have. It’s not premature to say that Darnold has the more successful career. The use of the word “successful” is very specific. Darnold has attained the team success Palmer never quite reached.

Palmer’s career might still be more impressive

To be clear, Sam Darnold’s rags-to-riches story is an all-timer and hugely impressive on so many levels. Yet, Carson Palmer was a dude for a long time in the NFL. He’s had six 4,000-yard passing seasons and two others of at least 3,800 yards. He was the definition of a Hall of Fame quarterback: Great for close to a decade. That’s a fairly simple definition of elite status in any pro sport. Darnold might indeed remain great for several more seasons — in fact, one should not bet against him in that regard — but right now, Sam still has to produce those quality seasons to match what Palmer did over a whole career.

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Darnold has the more successful career, but Palmer’s is still the more impressive one as a whole.

The what-if game, part one

The what-if game goes two ways here. Obviously, if Sam Darnold didn’t have awful coaches on poorly-run teams in New York with the Jets and Charlotte with the Carolina Panthers, he might have had a great start to his career. We can acknowledge that.

The what-if game, part two

However, while Sam Darnold was hurt at the start of his career by the Jets and Panthers, let’s not forget Carson Palmer was hurt at the start of his career with the Cincinnati Bengals. This is a conversation which might strike some people as weird, given that Palmer did make a number of playoff appearances in Cincy. He was winning games whereas Darnold did not in New York or Carolina. However, it’s the conversation we need to have.

Carson Palmer and the Cincinnati Bengals

Carson Palmer was surrounded by talented players on the 2000s Bengals. He did have pieces. The roster had a lot of potential. One could say it was Palmer’s fault the Bengals didn’t become everything they should have been … but that’s ultimately not an accurate or fully fair verdict.

Marvin Lewis

Marvin Lewis was the architect of the great Baltimore Ravens defenses which ruled the NFL near the turn of the century. He won Super Bowl XXXV against the New York Giants. He was a defense-first coach. Like all defense-first coaches, it was so hugely important to figure out the offensive side of the ball. No one can look at Lewis’s tenure in Cincy and say he understood how to coach offense or hire the right coordinators.

Mike Macdonald

Contrast defense-first coach Mike Macdonald with defense-first coach Marvin Lewis. Macdonald learned how to coach a whole team and manage a whole roster. He put Sam Darnold in a position to succeed whereas Marvin Lewis fell far short of that same standard with Carson Palmer in Cincinnati.

Klint Kubiak

Mike Macdonald hiring Klint Kubiak gave Sam Darnold an elite offensive coordinator, so elite that Kubiak is gone after one year to become the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders and presumptive No. 1 NFL draft pick Fernando Mendoza. This is something Carson Palmer never had with the Bengals.

Bengals offensive coordinators

Carson Palmer never had a hotshot offensive coordinator in Cincy, the astute chess player who was part of the NFL’s cutting edge. Imagine Palmer with a Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan. That’s what Palmer didn’t get with the Bengals. It’s what Sam Darnold got in Minnesota with Kevin O’Connell and then in Seattle with Macdonald and Kubiak.

Bruce Arians

Palmer went to the Arizona Cardinals after a decade in Cincy and thrived under the elite coaching of Bruce Arians. The Cardinals went 13-3 in the 2015 season and reached the NFC Championship Game. Palmer, though, was getting old. His 2016 season was ruined by injuries and he reached the end of the line physically. If only Palmer had five or six more seasons with Bruce Arians as his coach. That’s why his impressive career never reached the Super Bowl pinnacle Sam Darnold finally found.