Sam Darnold’s late grandfather is Dick Hammer, the Marlboro Man from the 1970s commercials. Hammer also played basketball at USC and competed in volleyball in the 1964 Olympics. He later starred in the television show Emergency! but left because he wanted to become a real-life firefighter.
Hammer was one of the most famous people in the world when the Minnesota Vikings entered the league in 1960. Still, NFL.com draft scout Lance Zierlien felt confident that Darnold would become more famous than his grandfather. “Soon enough,” Zierlein proclaimed in a 2018 draft profile, where he compared Darnold to Andrew Luck, “Darnold will become the top dog in the family.”
Zierlein’s proclamation seemed far-fetched until Darnold arrived in Minnesota. Last year, Darnold toiled away anonymously under Kyle Shanahan with the San Francisco 49ers. By then, his reputation had been tarnished. Darnold was the former No. 3-overall pick who became a bust with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers.
Darnold was known more for seeing ghosts than anything else he did on the field.
However, Kevin O’Connell has brought out the best in Darnold this year. He has led comebacks in the past two weeks, moving the Minnesota Vikings to 10-2. A week ago, Darnold led them to an overtime victory in Chicago despite injuring his foot. On Sunday, he staved off another defeat by threading passes to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison on an eight-play, 70-yard drive to take a 23-22 lead.
“[Sam’s] a baller,” said Harrison Smith. “He can make stuff happen when he needs to. I know the outside narrative on him, his path, and everything. But ever since he got here, I don’t know. It felt like this is what was going to happen. He’s just confirmed it.”
Few people praised Darnold as a “baller” in East Rutherford or Charlotte. However, we’ve learned over time that that was a product of organizational rot within the Jets and Panthers more than Darnold’s shortcomings. Still, it’s a shame that the grandson of the manliest man in the 1970s became known for getting spooked by apparitions from the great beyond.
“Darnold is the coolest human you will ever meet,” Trent Dilfer said in 2018. “He’s just cool. He can do anything. Sam Darnold could be the president. He’s just cooler than everybody you know.”
Darnold has recovered his reputation for being cool while playing in the coldest state in the continental US. Byron Murphy picked off former teammate Kyler Murray early in the fourth quarter, which later set up Darnold’s game-winning drive. He said he felt confident on the sidelines, knowing Darnold has been steady in clutch time all year.
“It’s a feeling you know your quarterback is going to go down there and drive the ball,” said Murphy. “I see it every day, so I’m expecting that. I love a great offense, so it just feels good to sit there on the bench and watch him drive the ball down the field.”
Darnold earned a gunslinger reputation in college. He’s always been quick enough to escape pressure in the pocket, had a strong arm, and doesn’t dwell on interceptions. It’s the recipe for a player who can create explosive plays but can also lead to mind-numbing turnovers.
“Darnold is my No. 1 guy because I think he can beat you from both inside the pocket and outside the pocket,” said NFL Network’s Mike Mayock. “Your first pick has got to set the tone. At the end of the day, it will be Sam Darnold, and he’s got a little Brett Favre in him.”
After the Jacksonville Jaguars game, it felt like Darnold’s gunslinger tendencies had led him down the same path he traveled in Carolina. Darnold started 3-0 with the Panthers, only to lose his next four games and eventually his starting job.
Darnold was 24 of 38 for 241 yards in Jacksonville but threw three picks. He had an 11:3 touchdown-to-interception ratio in September. But he had a 6:7 ratio in the five games after that, including Minnesota’s two losses as well as close calls against the New York Jets in London and the Indianapolis Colts and Jaguars games.
However, Darnold has bounced back since then. In the past three weeks, Darnold is 63 for 97 (65% completion) for 811 yards, with seven touchdowns and no picks for a 111.5 average passer rating.
“Coming off of a stretch there where maybe we had some turnover issues, he’s really played really good football now pretty consistently,” said O’Connell after the Cardinals game. “[Darnold has] been a huge driving force behind us winning games, and my confidence level in him is sky high.”
Only three times in Minnesota’s 64-year history has a Vikings quarterback had 10 games with a passer rating of 100 or above: Daunte Culpepper in 2000, Brett Favre in 2009, and Darnold this season. Darnold has five games to break the record, starting with Sunday’s matchup against Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons.
“I feel like he just puts the ball in the money,” said Murphy. “Definitely at practice, you can have good leverage, good anything, the ball just might be right here. I just feel like he’s been doing it every single Sunday. I feel like he’s escaping the pocket well, using his legs and just making good decisions.”
Darnold’s next step is balancing getting Jefferson the ball and maximizing Jefferson’s ability to open things up for the rest of the offense. Darnold forced the ball to Jefferson in Jacksonville, resulting in three picks. Two weeks later, he spread it around in Chicago, leading to Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson’s big days. However, they held Jefferson to 27 yards, and Jefferson wants to be more involved in the offense than that.
On Sunday, Arizona held Jefferson to two catches for 32 yards in the first half. However, he finished with seven catches for 99 yards.
“I’ve kind of been trying to tell these guys to give me the ball a little bit,” said Jefferson. “Definitely some plays that I was open a little bit in the first half, it just didn’t bother me. Just continue to be myself. Continue to run the routes that I’m supposed to run, and just get open. Let Sam find me whenever he can and move the ball downfield.”
If Darnold can find that balance, he can continue to drive the offense throughout the season. That’s no small feat, given people’s expectations for Darnold and the Vikings at the beginning of the year. However, Darnold has started to change what people think of him this year. He may never become Andrew Luck or Brett Favre. Still, he’ll probably become more famous than Dick Hammer.
