Sam Darnold

Sam Darnold

QB Sam Darnold in 2020 game with the New York Jets
No. 14 - San Francisco 49ers
Career information
College:	USC
NFL Draft:	2018 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3
Career history
New York Jets (2018-2020) Carolina Panthers (2021-2022) San Francisco 49ers (2023-present)
Career highlights and awards
First-team All-Pac-12 (2017) Rose Bowl champion (2017) Archie Griffin Award (2016) Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year (2016)
Career NFL statistics
Career CFL statistics
Career Arena statistics

Samuel Richard "Sam" Darnold (born June 5, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. He was selected third overall by the Jets in the 2018 NFL Draft. At age 21, he was the NFL's youngest opening-day starting quarterback since the AFL–NFL merger. Darnold served as the Jets' starter from 2018 to 2020, but due to inconsistent play and injuries, he was traded to the Carolina Panthers in 2021. Following two seasons with the Panthers, he joined the 49ers as a backup.

Early years

Darnold was born in Dana Point, California on June 5, 1997.

Darnold attended San Clemente High School in San Clemente, California. After playing baseball in his freshman year, he played football and basketball. During his high school basketball career, Darnold excelled, and was named South Coast League Most Valuable Player twice, along with being named to the all-CIF team. Basketball coach Marc Popovich stated Darnold's basketball skills helped translate into football, being the "only guy [I've] ever had who could get a defensive rebound and launch a 70-foot pass on target, pretty much in the same motion, to a guy breaking out in the fastbreak. It was almost Wes Unseld-like." Popovich added that Darnold could have played college basketball in the Pac-12 Conference or the Mountain West Conference "at worst."

On the football team, Darnold played wide receiver and linebacker, though he played quarterback as a sophomore after the starting quarterback was injured in a game against Tesoro High School. He threw a touchdown pass and scored the game-winning two-point conversion, but returned to playing receiver and linebacker a week later. When he legitimately became the school's quarterback, Darnold broke the school record for the most touchdown passes in a game when he threw five on two occasions. He missed much of his junior year with a foot injury. In his senior year, San Clemente reached the CIF-Southern Section Southwest Division championship game, where they lost 37–44 to Trabuco Hills High School in a comeback upset after Sam was knocked out of the game with a concussion. He ended his senior season with 3,000 passing yards and 39 touchdowns, along with 800 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns.

Darnold was rated by Rivals.com as a four-star recruit and was ranked as the eighth best dual-threat quarterback in his class and 179th best player overall. However, he did not have much footage of him performing at recruiting camps, preferring to show his play in games. As a result, San Clemente head football coach Jaime Ortiz elected to provide video of his basketball career to football coaches. He received scholarship offers to play college football from schools like Oregon, Utah, Northwestern and Duke. During a football camp, USC coaches Clay Helton and Steve Sarkisian were impressed by Darnold's performance, and extended to him a scholarship to play for the Trojans.

US college sports recruiting information for high school athletes

Name	Hometown	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Sam DarnoldQB	San Clemente, California	San Clemente	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	Jul 18, 2014
	Recruiting star ratings: Scout:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/4_stars.svg/75px-4_stars.svg.png   Rivals:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/4_stars.svg/75px-4_stars.svg.png   247Sports:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/4_stars.svg/75px-4_stars.svg.png    ESPN grade: 83
Overall recruiting rankings:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources:

College career

2015 season

USC defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, who recruited Darnold to the school, wanted him to play linebacker before he declined. In the 2015 season, Darnold redshirted for his freshman year as he was behind Cody Kessler and Max Browne on the depth chart.

2016 season

Entering the 2016 season as a redshirt freshman, Darnold was the second-string quarterback behind Max Browne. In three games as backup quarterback, Darnold saw limited action, completing 14-of-22 passes for two touchdowns and an interception. After a 1–2 start to the season, Browne was benched in favor of Darnold. In his first career start with USC against the Utah Utes, Darnold completed 18-of-26 passes for 253 yards and recorded a rushing touchdown as USC lost 27–31. After the loss, Darnold's Trojans did not lose a game for the remainder of the season, including a 26–13 upset win over the #4-ranked Washington Huskies. The USC offense recorded an average of 37 points and 518 yards per game, while Darnold set the school record for most passing touchdowns by a freshman with 26, ten more than the previous record set by Todd Marinovich in 1989. Against Arizona and California, Darnold became the first quarterback in school history to record five touchdown passes in consecutive games, while also throwing for multiple touchdowns in eight straight games, the first USC quarterback to do so since Matt Leinart did in 2004. On the ground, Darnold recorded 230 rushing yards, the most by a USC quarterback since Reggie Perry's 254 yards in 1991. Darnold was named the 2016 Pac-12 Conference Freshman Offensive Player of the Year in late November.

USC was invited to play in the 2017 Rose Bowl, their first appearance in the bowl in eight seasons. In the 52–49 victory over Penn State, Darnold completed 33-of-53 passes for 453 yards, while also setting Rose Bowl records in passing touchdowns (5) and total yards (453). The 453 yards recorded ranked second in the bowl's history, only trailing Danny O'Neil's 456 in the 1995 game.

On January 4, 2017, it was announced that Darnold was awarded the Archie Griffin Award, which was awarded annually to college football's most valuable player to his team throughout the season, an award no other freshman had ever won previously. Darnold was also named to the Football Writers Association of America's Freshman All-America team.

2017 season

Entering the 2017 season as a redshirt sophomore, Darnold became an early favorite for the Heisman Trophy, and eventually a first round pick in the 2018 draft. The season did not start the way Darnold had expected. In six games, he had matched the number of interceptions that he had thrown the previous year. This was accredited to breaking in a new receiver group, numerous injuries, and questionable coaching decisions. Despite this, he led USC to a dominant victory over Stanford by a score of 42–24. He then led an overtime victory over the Texas Longhorns during which he drove the Trojans to a game tying field goal in the final 39 seconds of regulation. Darnold guided USC to the Pac-12 Conference championship with a 31–28 victory over Stanford in the conference title game where he was named the game's MVP after throwing for over 300 yards and two touchdowns. The win earned USC a spot in the 2017 Cotton Bowl where, despite 356 yards passing the Trojans were soundly defeated by the Ohio State Buckeyes, 24–7.

Statistics

Year	Team	Games		Passing							Rushing				Defense
		G	GS	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	Int	Rtg	Att	Yds	Avg	TD	Solo	Total
2016	USC	13	10	246	366	67.2	3,086	31	9	161.1	62	250	4.0	2	3	3
2017	USC	14	14	303	480	63.1	4,143	26	13	148.1	75	82	1.1	5	2	2
Career		27	24	549	846	64.9	7,229	57	22	155.6	137	332	2.4	7	5	5

Source:

Professional career

On January 3, 2018, Darnold announced that he would enter the 2018 NFL Draft.

All values from NFL Combine

Pre-draft measureables

Ht	Wt	Arm lengthHand size	40-yd dash	10-yd split	20-yd split	20-ss	3-cone	Vert	Broad	BP
6 ft 3⅜ in	221 lb	31 in	9⅜ in	4.85 s	1.67 s	2.81 s	4.40 s	6.96 s	26½ in	8 ft 9 in

Darnold was selected by the New York Jets in the first round, with the third overall selection, of the 2018 NFL Draft. On July 30, 2018, Darnold signed a four-year deal worth $30.25 million fully guaranteed featuring a $20 million signing bonus with the Jets.

Playing style

Though not regarded widely as a dual-threat quarterback, Darnold has been praised for his mobility in the pocket, which, when needed, allows him to escape pressure, extend plays and throw on the run, similar to Aaron Rodgers. He has also been described as a "gunslinger".

External links

• Sam Darnold article at Wikipedia