SAN JOSE — His media obligations having been concluded at the San Jose Convention Center, Sam Darnold can look forward to being in his comfort zone Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.
The Seattle Seahawks (16-3) will be in the 49ers’ home locker room for Super Bowl 60 against the New England Patriots (17-3) (NBC, 3:30 p.m.). It’s a safe haven where Darnold watched and learned in giving his career a needed jump-start after difficult stretches with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers.
Odds of him getting his old locker space in the far corner near the trainer’s room are slim.
“I haven’t put in that request,” Darnold said Wednesday. “That might be a good idea, though, to get some familiarity there. I had nothing on my left side, so it was a great spot. I can put my backpack there and feel real comfortable.”
On his third team in three years and fifth overall, Darnold is cool, calm, and collected, a kindred spirit if not a personality clone of Brock Purdy, the man he willingly backed up in 2023 while on a one-year contract with the 49ers.
Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, a 49ers offensive assistant on Kyle Shanahan’s staff in 2023 and the brother of current 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, can see the parallels.
Klint Kubiak is expected to be named head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders next week, but he said he’s currently focusing on his job in Seattle.
“I would say it has a lot to do with who raised them, their mom and dad,” Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said. “They got into the league totally different ways, a first-round pick and the last pick, but they’re just humble, hard-working every day Joes. They don’t worry about outside noise. They’re not celebrity quarterbacks by any stretch.”
Besides assimilating himself to Shanahan’s system of offense, Darnold watched Purdy closely during Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. While Darnold was at random tables at media sessions that begin Monday night and run through Thursday, Purdy was front and center, talking at the podium, and also steadfastly preparing to face the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I learned a ton, you know?” Darnold said. “It was something I was able to ask Brock about during the process. Are you feeling it? Are you a little tired? He said, no, you just take it one step at a time, do all the media obligations, but do what you can to keep the routine the same.”
In private moments, Darnold will concede to lapsing into generalities when he is in a media situation. He’s like Purdy in that way, willing to give you some of himself but not all of it. His most expansive answers come when asked about teammates and coaches.
Darnold has appeared to enjoy the week, rather than shrink from it. Which isn’t surprising considering the path he’s taken since being drafted No. 3 overall out of USC at age 20. He was thrust into a perennially dysfunctional environment in the nation’s most hyper-critical media market and won 13 of 38 starts before being dispatched to Carolina, a Big Apple washout at age 23.
Then came Carolina and two more seasons of frustration and hard knocks. The Panthers were such a mess that they had both Darnold and Baker Mayfield and couldn’t get the best out of either one.
That brought him to the 49ers on a one-year deal, a wise choice and a perfect place to reset his career. His only start was a regular-season finale with regulars resting and the 49ers having clinched the top seed en route to a 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
“In San Francisco, learning about defenses was huge for me to understand what schemes beat certain coverages,” Darnold said. “It was crucial to me growing as a player.”
Darnold signed a one-year contract with Minnesota and was a placeholder for first-round pick J.J. McCarthy. The Vikings were 14-3, but Darnold struggled in the regular-season finale against Detroit for the No. 1 seed and then in the wild-card round in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
The Vikings, under coach Kevin O’Connell, use a lot of the same concepts as the 49ers. But they wanted to play McCarthy, and Darnold left in free agency for Seattle. Not coincidentally, Minnesota fired general manager Kwesi Adofo Mensah when Minnesota went 9-8 with McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer at quarterback.
Sam Darnold (14) and Brock Purdy (13) embrace before a 49ers preseason game in 2023. Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News GroupYet seldom is heard a discouraging word when Darnold assesses what happened in New York, Carolina, San Francisco, or Minnesota. If that’s what it took to get Darnold to the precipice of a championship, he’s good with it.
“Sometimes hard work and all the dedication and hours I’ve put in during the offseason and during the season lead to a moment, and that’s the kind of mindset I’ve had my entire career,” Darnold said.
Veteran wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who was wearing an “I (heart) Sam Darnold T-shirt Thursday, has watched other quarterbacks flame out and never recover.
“It’s one of those things that’s very understated, how quickly the NFL can chew up and spit out a quarterback who doesn’t perform to the standards that people place on them early in their career,” Kupp said.
Darnold said the only way to conquer the impatience of outside perception is to grind through it.
“You see examples of that all around the league, guys not having as much success as they feel they should have, or maybe the media thinks they should have out of college,” Darnold said. “I’ve always believed in myself and my confidence to do my job, and I learned a ton from the mistakes I made earlier in my career, and I feel my mindset has gotten me to this point.”
Sam Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 regular season record in 2024. A.P. PhotoDarnold traces his ability to be resilient to a quote from 49ers legend Jerry Rice that was relayed to him at USC and that he never forgot. Darnold learned to fix a mistake and flush it, rather than obsess over it.
“Jerry Rice said you’re never going to have a perfect day out there, and I think once you understand that, you can go out there and play free,” Darnold said. “I think that really unlocked something for me mentally.”
Seattle coach Mike Macdonald is all talked out when it comes to Darnold, and is as consistent in his responses as Darnold is personally.
“I feel like I’m giving you guys terrible answers because I’m giving you the same answer every time,” Macdonald said. “He’s just so steadfast in approach and who he is. He understands how much the team believes in him and has his back. So just keep firing away, man. Keep being you and go on to the next play. If he has a perfect passer rating, he’s not strutting around like he’s just saved all the world’s problems.”
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“I woke up this morning, and I wasn’t really sore at all,” Emmanwori said. “There are a lot of people checking in on me, from family, teammates, and coaches. But I’m ready to go. It’s nothing like Week 1.”
Macdonald said the Seahawks would be overly cautious “to make sure we’re rolling going into the weekend.”
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