Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold says he feels like he would have been able to give the Minnesota Vikings a chance to advance past last season’s Wild Card round if he had played “up to my standard” in the playoffs.
The Los Angeles Rams instead tied a playoff record by sacking Darnold nine times in a 27-9 elimination victory over the Vikings.
“For lack of a better term, we laid an egg as an offense,” Darnold told The Athletic’s Michael Silver about the loss. “And I think, for me personally, that sucks. I felt like we were a really good team, but at the end of the day — and this is gonna sound a little pessimistic — but when you get to the end of it and you don’t win the whole thing, you failed.
“I feel like I could have played way better, to be completely honest with you. I feel I didn’t play up to my standard. I truly feel that way. I feel like if I would have just played better, I would’ve been able to give the team a chance.”
The Vikings’ abrupt playoff exit came after the team failed to clinch the top seed in the NFC with a 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 18 of the regular season.
“I learned a lot last season, from those two games especially,” Darnold told Silver. “At the end of the day, you go through those experiences, you learn, and you get better. I try every single day to get better. That’s it.”
The Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal in March as a replacement for current Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith.
That deal could be seen as a vote of confidence from the Seahawks that Darnold will be able to play up to the standards he set while leading the Vikings to a 14-2 record before the two deflating season-ending losses.
The structure of Darnold’s contract would allow the Seahawks to cut him after the 2025 season to the tune of $25.6 million in dead money, per ESPN’s Brady Henderson.
Darnold will hope to lead the Seahawks back into the playoffs next fall to prove general manager John Schneider should keep him around past that potential out.