What Super Bowl QB Sam Darnold Said About Panthers Tenure

Tough times don't last; tough people do.

That's something you've probably heard once or twice in your life, especially if you're an athlete. Adversity is inevitable, no matter what field of work you are in. There's no way to run from it, so the only thing you can do is face it head on.

That's exactly what Sam Darnold did in the early years of his NFL career, be it with the New York Jets or the Carolina Panthers. Both organizations had high hopes for him, believing he could be their long-term answer at the game's most important position.

For different reasons, those experiments failed miserably, mostly because of the ecosystems he was in — poor coaching, poor roster construction, and not enough talent. Once he landed in better situations and saw what a winning culture looked like, i.e., San Francisco and Minnesota, it clicked.

Now, he's in Seattle and has a chance to win a Super Bowl — something the folks in New York and Carolina probably thought was impossible with him as the starting quarterback, yet here we are.

In a recent interview with Dan Patrick, Darnold was asked about those dark and gloomy times with the Jets and Panthers.

"The days in New York, the days in Carolina – those were part of my journey, and they're part of my experience – and I loved every single part of it."

– Sam Darnold on his NFL journey. pic.twitter.com/jXrfsFSCxc
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) January 30, 2026

“It is a part of the journey, and it is a part of who I am…the days in New York, the days in Carolina — those were part of my journey, and they’re part of my experience, and I loved every single part of it. Yeah, there were some lows that sucked. I’m not going to lie to you. That’s part of it, though. I learned so much from that, and I’m able to move on. After every game we lost or things didn’t go well, I was able to wake up that next day and see the sun rise and go into the building, see my teammates, have fun with my coaches. That’s a part of life. And I think being able to realize in this point in my career, it allows you to take it one day at a time and enjoy every single little moment that you get with your teammates.”

He could have very easily called some folks out and given a bitter response, but instead, he understands that to get to where he is today, he had to go through that adversity. It helped shape him.

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