{"id":234191,"date":"2025-07-25T05:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T05:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/234191\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T05:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T05:21:10","slug":"aj-barner-sends-sam-darnold-warning-ahead-of-qbs-first-seattle-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/234191\/","title":{"rendered":"AJ Barner sends Sam Darnold warning ahead of QB’s first Seattle season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Darnold<\/a> parlayed his career-best season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 into a three-year, $100.5 million contract<\/a> with the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> this offseason. Now Seattle is hoping Darnold can build on last season\u2019s success and lead the team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n

Seahawks tight end AJ Barner is a believer<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the best quarterbacks in the league, no doubt about it. We\u2019re going to show it this year,\u201d Barner said of Darnold, per Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam\u2019s been phenomenal\u2026 Really takes the time to get with the guys. He\u2019s open about communication back and forth about what you see. His timing is really something I\u2019ve really taken notice of and think he\u2019s very, very good at. When he hits his drop and when he sees it, the ball is going to be out before you\u2019re out of your break. I\u2019m really excited to work with him,\u201d Barner added.<\/p>\n

Sam Darnold looks to continue career revival with Seahawks\"JunStephen Brashear-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Darnold was selected third overall out of USC by the New York Jets in the 2018 draft. After three underwhelming seasons, the Jets moved on, using the second pick in the 2021 draft on Zach Wilson. Darnold was shipped to the Carolina Panthers where he started 17 games over two seasons, throwing for 3,670 yards with 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Darnold landed with the San Francisco 49ers where he backed up Brock Purdy. He then signed a one-year deal with the Vikings in 2024. However, after signing Darnold, Minnesota drafted J.J. McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in that year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

The eighth-year veteran hoped to beat out the rookie for the starting job in training camp. But Darnold became the Vikings\u2019 QB1 after McCarthy tore his meniscus in the preseason opener. He would go on to record career-highs in passing yards (4,319), touchdowns (35), attempts (545), completions (361) and completion percentage (66.2).<\/p>\n

Darnold was named to his first Pro Bowl as he led the Vikings to a 14-3 regular season record. However, the team was eliminated in the Wild Card round by the Rams<\/a> as Darnold struggled in his first ever postseason start.<\/p>\n

Still, his time working with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco and Kevin O\u2019Connell in Minnesota seems to have triggered a turnaround. Now the Seahawks hope that trend continues.<\/p>\n

Seattle traded longtime starter Geno Smith to the Raiders<\/a> this offseason, making room for Darnold. He\u2019ll take over a Seahawks offense featuring third-year wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba and newcomer Cooper Kupp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Darnold parlayed his career-best season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 into a three-year, $100.5 million contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6192,6,1878,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-234191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kevin-oconnell","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sam-darnold","12":"tag-seahawks","13":"tag-seattle","14":"tag-seattle-seahawks","15":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114912197867890965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}