Doubted, dismissed, Seahawks’ Sam Darnold wins. Like only Tom Brady has in NFL
They showed up in the middle of the damp night to welcome their division champions home.
Moms. Dads. Guys. Girls. Little kids. They lined the dark, wet street in Renton. They waved Seahawks flags as the buses carrying the NFC West champions and top seed in the conference playoffs returned to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. It was just after 1 a.m. Sunday.
For Leonard Williams, maybe it was still Saturday.
“I don’t want today to end,” the 11th-year veteran and Pro Bowl defensive tackle said, when it really was still Saturday night and the Seahawks had just dominated the San Francisco 49ers in a 13-3 victory in Santa Clara, California. “It’s incredible. This is the closest team I’ve ever been on.”
It’s the first 14-3 one he’s ever been on.
It’s the first 14-win team in any of the Seahawks’ 50 regular seasons of NFL football.
And it’s Sam Darnold’s validation.
Since the day he agreed to come to Seattle on a three-year, $100.5 million contract in March to replace traded Geno Smith as the Seahawks quarterback, Darnold has heard all his doubters. From Maine to Maui football people brought up the 28-year-old quarterback failing in big games.
They knocked him for faltering for three previous teams. For most recently last season, when he started 2024 leading the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-2 start — only to get annihilated by Detroit in the NFC North title game then by the Rams the following week to go out in the playoffs in round one.
Now Sam Darnold has joined the immortal Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks in league history to win 14 games in consecutive regular seasons.
Darnold is the only one to do that with two different teams.
He’s beaten the Rams, who sacked him a playoff-record nine times in that Minnesota loss 12 months ago. He rallied Seattle from 16 points down with 10 minutes left to win in overtime over Los Angeles last month at Lumen Field. Darnold won that game with a patient pass to backup tight end Eric Saubert for the two-point conversion that ended that wild night.
He’s beaten the 49ers. The division archrival had won six of the seven previous meetings. That was before Darnold cooly completed 20 of 26 passes against San Francisco Saturday night.
Darnold did that with his coach from San Clemente High School in southern California, Jaime Ortiz, and his high school offensive coordinator Troy Kopp in the stadium in Santa Clara. They flew up the coast and sat in the lower deck, south end zone at Levi’s Stadium. They saw Darnold do what he did for them at San Clemente High 11 years ago: Win a division title.
Sam Darnold’s lessons
Darnold won the West by taking what San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh gave him.
Saleh began the game playing back in coverage. The former Seahawks assistant was trying to mask by sheer numbers of players the Niners’ losses of All-Pros Fred Warner and Nick Bosa to injuries. Darnold and the Seahawks picked San Francisco apart early.
Then Saleh began to blitz Darnold, to try to force mistakes. Darnold didn’t flinch. His response: Check passes down to running backs and hot receivers. Fifteen of Darnold’s 16 passes from the start of the second quarter into the beginning of the fourth were quick and short, within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. His only deep ball in that span was to the right sideline for 18 yards to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. That began Seattle’s drive to Jason Myers’ 48-yard field goal for a 10-0 Seahawks lead. On that drive, Darnold converted a third and 4 by getting away from the 49ers’ pass rush with a scramble up the middle for 5 yards.
The way coach Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks defense absolutely dominated the 49ers, that two-score lead was insurmountable. Darnold was the NFL leader in turnovers with 20 entering the game. Saturday was the fourth time in 17 games he and the Seahawks offense did not commit a turnover.
After it ended, as smoke from the players’ celebratory cigars filled the visiting locker room in Levi’s Stadium, the News Tribune asked Darnold Saturday night what his week-18 experience with the Vikings last year taught him that he applied against the 49ers.
“I think, just taking what the defense gives me,” Darnold said. “If I’m in play-action and get my eyes down the field and I’m not exactly seeing it the way I want to, I am able to just get to a check-down (receiver) or maybe scramble or just throw the ball away.
“Especially on first and second down, I think that was the biggest difference.”
All those doubters? They weren’t wading through the cigar smoke inside the Seahawks’ locker room in Santa Clara Saturday night.
“We have 100% confidence in Sam. We know what kind of guy he is,” said linebacker Drake Thomas, whose interception off Christian McCaffrey’s hands inside the 10-yard line in the fourth quarter was the biggest of many mammoth plays by Seattle’s defense.
“He shows up the same every, single day. He’s a fighter. He’s tough. He shows up every single week.
“And we have 14 wins. So that’s a testament to him.”
Yet Darnold’s been around the league long enough — from the Jets who drafted him third overall in 2018, to the Panthers, to being Brock Purdy’s backup on the 2023 49ers, to the Vikings and now Seahawks — to know he and his team really haven’t done anything yet.
They get this week off, the coveted first-round bye as the top playoff seed. Then it’s a divisional-round game at Lumen Field the weekend of Jan. 17-18. If Darnold and the Seahawks do it again then, it’s the NFC championship in Seattle Jan. 25.
Then? A return trip to Levi’s Stadium for the Super Bowl next month?
Darnold and his Seahawks are now the betting favorites to be there.
“We’re going to celebrate this one,” Darnold said outside the locker room in Santa Clara Saturday night, “but we know that we have a lot of work to do.
“And we’re going to get right to work on that this upcoming week.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2026 at 12:50 PM.
