SANTA CLARA — Two years ago, Sam Darnold was a backup quarterback for the 49ers.
Learning under Kyle Shanahan and backing up Brock Purdy, Darnold spent many games at Levi’s Stadium watching and learning as he tried to revive a career that many labeled as a bust.
From the sidelines, Darnold watched as Purdy took the 49ers to the Super Bowl.
On Sunday night, Darnold came back to Levi’s and hoisted a Lombardi Trophy, this time wearing the Seattle Seahawks blue and green, completing an arc that seemed improbable when he first signed with San Francisco.
“It’s unbelievable. Just everything that’s happened in my career, but to do it with this team, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Darnold, who completed 19 of 38 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown. “I’m so proud of our guys. Our defense, I mean I can’t say enough good things about our defense, our special teams. I know we won the Super Bowl, but we could’ve been a little better on offense, but I don’t care about that right now. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”
But not a surprise, at least not to Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald.
“All he’s done since he walked in the door is be a tremendous player and a tremendous leader,” Macdonald said after Seattle captured the championship.
Darnold’s ultimate victory came after being lost in the NFL wilderness. The Jets traded the No. 3 overall pick in the 2018 draft three years later to Carolina for a second-rounder and a pair of sixth-rounders. He landed with the 49ers and Vikings each for a year before signing a three-year deal with the Seahawks last spring.
The last Super Bowl among the four teams that let Darnold go was the 49ers’ title following the 1994 season.
Darnold backed up Brock Purdy with the 49ers in 2023 and parlayed his decent showing — including a start in the regular-season finale — into a deal with the Minnesota Vikings.
He shone brightly for the Vikings last season with 35 touchdowns and more than 4,300 passing yards before wilting in a winner-take-NFC North finale against Detroit and a wild-card loss to the Rams in which he took an astounding nine sacks and turned the ball over twice.
Despite that rough in his postseason debut, those first 16 games in Minnesota were enough to convince the Seahawks. Seattle signed him last offseason to a contract with $55 million guaranteed and traded Geno Smith to the Raiders.
Darnold, 28, repaid their faith with more than 4,000 passing yards in the regular season and a career-high 67.7 completion percentage en route to a 14-3 season, his second consecutive year with that record.
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Not that it matters to the first USC quarterback to hoist a Lombardi Trophy as a starter.
“I don’t know if there is a quarterback in NFL history that’s been through the things he’s had to go through in the first five years,” Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp said. “To believe in himself, to overcome everyone telling him he wasn’t that guy anymore, that he couldn’t be a starter, that he couldn’t be a productive quarterback, to just come back to work and just commit to his process and then to go out there in the biggest moments this year over and over and over again and just show up, stand in the pocket and make the tough throws and manage the game, it’s an unbelievable story. I am so glad I got to know the new Sam Darnold.”
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