Seahawks' Darnold to apply lessons from disastrous '24 finish - ESPN

RENTON, Wash. — Sam Darnold was almost 14 minutes into his introductory news conference at Seattle Seahawks headquarters Thursday when he got the question he knew was coming.

What did he learn from the disappointing end to his resurgent season with the Minnesota Vikings?

«I was waiting for someone to bring that up,» Darnold said while flanked on stage by coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. «I appreciate that.

»No, it's fair, man. You get all the way to that point, you have the season that we had offensively as a team, and then you run into, at the end of the day only one team can win the Super Bowl. And unfortunately, we weren't that team."

Darnold and the Vikings appeared poised for a deep playoff run until the wheels of his Pro Bowl season started to come loose in Week 18, when he completed only 18 of 41 attempts in a 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions. A week later, he was sacked nine times in a 27-9 defeat by the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card round.

Darnold had thrown 35 touchdown passes over the first 16 games but threw only one over the final two.

«I think being able to get the ball out a little bit quicker on some of the dropback stuff that we had those last couple games and understanding where the outlets are and even if a guy is covered, even if my backs covered on a checkdown, just throwing it at his feet,» he said. «I feel like I was taking some unnecessary sacks last year, especially those last few games.… I'll definitely be thinking about that, keeping two hands on the ball in the pocket at all times. Just doing all the little fundamental things, but that's a big one, is being able to just get the ball out on time.»

Darnold will look to apply that lesson in Seattle under Kubiak. He