Analyst ranks Seahawks' Sam Darnold as middle of the league best QB this season

Since the beginning of the 2025 NFL Season, Seattle Seahawks' Sam Darnold has been one of the most unrated quarterbacks in the league. He had a stellar 2024 regular season with the Minnesota Vikings, but he, along with the rest of the team, had two bad games, and suddenly, the faith in him was lost. Two forward to the end of the regular season, Darnold is still undervalued among his peers.

The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz released his post-2025 quarterback rankings, placing Darnold at No. 15—just inside the league’s top half—behind several players he outperformed both statistically and in the playoff race.

He categorized the quarterbacks based on their playing attributes, and they aren’t measured by wins this season. There are, however, many aspects that make Darnold stand out this season, but are still listed lower. Five total quarterbacks ahead of him played on teams that didn’t make the playoffs, while Darnold, who is on a heavy Super Bowl contender, is in the middle-tier.

Off the bat, Ruiz regards Darnold as the NFL’s most talented system quarterback, with his biggest mark labeled as ‘irrational confidence.’ He was praised for his playmaking abilities in the first half of the season, but was unable to sustain that same consistency through the second half. Questions of his accuracy and his turnover mistakes were the areas highlighted the most.

While Darnold is praised for taking fewer sacks, it doesn’t decrease productivity at the offensive line during a stretch of the second half of games. The Seahawks’ offensive line was having problems recognizing and picking up blitzes.

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January 8, 2026
Darnold had an above-average arm strength talent and pocket awareness, but was graded as average in accuracy, timing, decision-making, and creativity despite being one of the more accurate passers from deep this season.
He finished with 25 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, an average of 8.5 yards per completion, 4,048 yards, and a quarterback rating of 99.1. He finished with the better quarterback rating than six players rated above him, including Chargers’ Justin Herbert (#1) and Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes II (#1).
He finished with an overall grade of 86.7, just .1 less than Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Hurts. Darnold was fourth in success rate at 53.3%, fourth in completion percentage over expected rate at 5.2%, and 12th in EPA/Play with 0.157 EPA/dropback.
It did help that the Seahawks finished with the top scoring defense in the league and a running game that significantly improved late in the season. Nevertheless, Darnold made the big-time deep throws to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for big plays and found ways to extend multiple key drives.
Seattle would be in a very different playoff situation if it had Geno Smith, whom many experts thought was better than Darnold before the season. The Seahawks, with Darnold at quarterback, are off this week after securing the No. 1 seed in the NFC and await their opponent in the Divisional Round next weekend.
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