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Darnold Won the Super Bowl and Graded His Own Tape a B-Minus
Sam Darnold went on Bussin’ With The Boys and did the most Sam Darnold thing imaginable: he won a Super Bowl and then complained about how he played in it. “I didn’t play great in the Super Bowl,” he told the hosts. “I missed way too many throws.” Then the part that tells you everything about this guy: he said winning it the way they did left him “kinda bummed.”
Read that back. A man who spent seven years as a punchline, who got run out of New York and Carolina, who landed a one-year prove-it deal and turned it into a championship, is sitting here a few months later wishing the coronation had a cleaner box score. He even told the hosts he wanted to score 40. In the Super Bowl. After winning the Super Bowl.
To his credit, he gave the defense its flowers and noted he didn’t turn the ball over, which, if you watched him lead the league in regular-season giveaways, was the entire point. The turnover-free playoff run was the redemption arc. He just can’t enjoy it.
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Turnovers from Darnold in the Super Bowl, after leading the NFL in regular-season giveaways.
Here’s the thing I keep coming back to. This is a quarterback heading into a contract conversation where people are throwing around numbers like $55 million a year, and his instinct is to publicly tell you he wasn’t good enough. You can read that as insecurity. I read it as a guy who finally found a place that fits and is terrified of taking it for granted. Either way, the cameras at Hard Knocks are going to eat this candor alive.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
ESPN’s Aaron Schatz is still beating the drum to extend Leonard Williams before Witherspoon, and honestly the case isn’t dumb: the Big Cat turns 32, is in a contract year, and was second-team All-Pro. The counter is that one of these two is 24 and the other is asking nicely for the line to start at his locker. SI
Camp opens July 25 and the Witherspoon talks, per the latest, are still not going “smoothly.” Seattle’s first offer is now roughly three months old with nothing behind it. “Not close” in late June is the offseason version of leaving the milk out: technically fine until it suddenly isn’t. Yahoo Sports
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
NINERS
Per Vic Tafur of The Athletic, the 49ers are now “exploring” relocating their entire practice facility, in part because it sits next to an electrical substation that has spawned its own offseason conspiracy chatter about electromagnetic fields. Four hundred million dollars on the roster and the marquee June initiative is whether the building has good vibes. A franchise that can’t keep anyone healthy deciding the problem might be the power lines is the most San Francisco thing I’ve heard all summer.
CARDINALS
SI’s Cardinals desk declared Arizona is “one piece away” from an elite offense, which is a bold framing for a team whose own coverage spent the week revisiting how Marvin Harrison Jr.’s two-year start fell short of the “generational” label stamped on him at the draft. When the missing piece is your supposed franchise receiver finally hitting, that’s not one piece away. That’s the whole puzzle.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This bruising fullback was Seattle’s first-round pick, 15th overall, in 1986, made two Pro Bowls in eight seasons with the Seahawks, and was as much a receiving threat out of the backfield as a runner. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
John L. Williams. He topped 70 catches in a season twice and earned back-to-back Pro Bowl nods in 1990 and 1991 before finishing his career in Pittsburgh, the rare fullback teams genuinely had to game-plan around in the passing game.
Got a Question for The Rooster?
The mailbag is always open. Cap math, roster takes, conspiracy theories about why your favorite player isn’t getting paid yet. Send it in and I’ll answer the good ones in my voice, which is to say honestly and with too much caffeine.
A ring on his finger and a grudge against his own tape. We really did find the right one. — The Rooster