{"id":734890,"date":"2026-02-07T04:03:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734890\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T04:03:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:03:18","slug":"49ers-christian-mccaffrey-lauds-sam-darnolds-nfl-career-arc-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734890\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers\u2019 Christian McCaffrey lauds Sam Darnold\u2019s NFL career arc \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone needs a hype man in their corner as passionate as Christian McCaffrey<\/a>, and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold<\/a> has just that.<\/p>\n

The 49ers’ star running back went on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd<\/a> on Wednesday to discuss Darnold’s amazing career turnaround.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve had two stints with him, McCaffrey explained to Cowherd. “I remember when people asked me about Sam, I\u2019d always known him a little bit. But when I first met him in Carolina, from the jump … \u2018This guy\u2019s a dude.'”<\/p>\n

In 18 games with the Panthers, Darnold threw 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions and posted a 77.3 quarterback rating. <\/p>\n

Still, McCaffrey saw something in the journeyman that few others did.<\/p>\n

“The more and more you see him at practice,” McCaffrey continued, “you see the throws he makes, you understand why he\u2019s a top pick in the draft. I think so many times you see quarterbacks who start out in bad situations and get the blame for it.”<\/p>\n

Darnold<\/a>, whom the New York Jets selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, certainly received a lot of the blame for his previous team’s woes. The trajectory of his career, however, was turned upside down after one year under 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“When you\u2019re around [Darnold] more”, McCaffrey explained, ‘you\u2019re like ‘This is one of the best players I\u2019ve ever been around — period.’ It\u2019s because of how talented his arm is; he\u2019s way more athletic than people give him credit for. He\u2019s really good at taking what\u2019s given to him and doing his job.”<\/p>\n

Darnold was a great backup to San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy during the 2023 season, which ultimately led him to another quarterback-friendly offense with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024.<\/p>\n

“To be frank, he\u2019s gone through so much in this league,” McCaffrey continued. “He showed up every day, and he kept working. Even last year, taking Minnesota to a 14-win season and taking them to the playoffs. Doing it again this year and playing in the Super Bowl, it\u2019s a testament to his resiliency, the type of guy he is, and the player he is.”<\/p>\n

In 2025, Darnold had over 4,000 yards passing for a second consecutive season. But his play on the field isn’t the only thing that makes him great, according to McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s somebody that I can\u2019t say enough good things about,” McCaffrey concluded. “He shows up every day with an unbelievable attitude. Never makes excuses, never complains about anything.\u00a0He\u2019s one of my best friends and just an incredible player.<\/p>\n

McCaffrey’s good buddy is returning to 49ers territory Sunday, hoping to win Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots on familiar ground at Levi’s Stadium.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone needs a hype man in their corner as passionate as Christian McCaffrey, and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,4124,7,6,1878,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-734890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-christian-mccaffrey","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sam-darnold","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116027366064403322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734890","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=734890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}