Ahead of Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, it's become abundantly clear that the biggest losers in the NFL are not the Broncos and Rams, who came this close to reaching the Super Bowl and failed. No, the biggest losers of Super Bowl LX are the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets.
The Seattle Seahawks took a lot of heat for the decision to trade quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders for just a 3rd-round pick, instead opting to take a risk in NFL free agency on Sam Darnold.
That decision is looking more and more like the best move anyone has made in the NFL in recent years, as Darnold has been a hand-in-glove fit with Seattle, while teams like the Vikings and Jets are left wondering, "What if?"
Sam Darnold in the Super Bowl is torturous for both the Vikings and Jets
The New York Jets made Sam Darnold the 3rd overall pick out of USC back in the 2018 NFL Draft. Darnold was considered a #1 overall type of talent, but struggled with being reckless with the football at times. His tenure with the Jets wasn't good, but it wasn't like he was surrounded with elite talent and coaching like he is now with the Seahawks.
Regardless, the impatience of owners and executives in the NFL led the Jets to take Zach Wilson with the 2nd overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, and Darnold was shipped out to Carolina after three disappointing years where he also wasn't able to consistently stay on the field.
After two years in Carolina, Darnold took a backup role with the San Francisco 49ers, where he grew under Kyle Shanahan and did his best to rehab his overall value. He parlayed that into an opportunity with the Minnesota Vikings, where he led them to a 14-3 record and threw 35 touchdown passes in the process.
Shockingly, the Vikings didn't try all that hard to bring Darnold back, but instead opted to roll with 2024 1st-round pick JJ McCarthy. We all saw how that worked out as the Vikings watched the entire postseason from the couch.
The development of Darnold over the last couple of years has been rather astonishing. You almost can't blame the Jets for moving on, but Darnold's emergence as a player in his late-20s is a testament to the fact that there are so many factors that go into a quarterback becoming successful in the NFL.
Too many people in charge of NFL teams are married to one of two things: Either the expectation of overnight success for players no matter their circumstances, or their own hubris despite solutions staring them directly in the face.
And that is why both the Jets and Vikings are the biggest losers of this Super Bowl matchup between the Seahawks and Patriots, although for the Jets, it's really a layered discussion. Not only is Sam Darnold starting at quarterback for the Seahawks in this game, but the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl after a brief time trying to figure things out in the post-Tom Brady era.
The Vikings shouldn't have let a guy who is in his 20s and just threw 35 touchdown passes on a 14-win team out of the building. The Jets shouldn't have expected Darnold to come carry this team to immediate success without the right pieces and coaches around him.