Sam Darnold snubbed at No. 100 as ESPN Buries Seahawks' super bowl winner before title defense

Landing dead last on ESPN's list of the top 100 NFL players for 2026 is a strange fate for a quarterback who just lifted a Lombardi Trophy. Yet that is exactly where Seattle's Sam Darnold sits.

A dozen ESPN analysts and reporters built the ranking around what they expect in 2026 rather than what a player has already banked, which is how a 14-3 record, an NFC crown, and a championship end up buried at the bottom of the ledger.

Seahawks beat writer Brady Henderson wrote the note attached to Darnold's placement, and it read less like a takedown than a backhanded compliment.

"No quarterback has more wins over the past two seasons than Darnold, who has 31 with the Vikings and Seahawks," Henderson wrote . "He'd be higher on this list if not for his league-high 20 turnovers in 2025, though he went the final four games without one. One reason Darnold could be better in 2026: This is the first time since 2020 that he returns to the same team as its unquestioned starter."

Those turnovers are the anchor dragging his stock down, and 20 of them are nothing to wave away. ESPN's own forecast for the coming year has him at 4,013 yards, 24 scores, and 12 picks, numbers that would satisfy plenty of franchises but feel oddly small for a reigning champion.

Two 14-Win Seasons in a Row Put Darnold in Company, Only Tom Brady Has Kept

Continuity has been the missing ingredient across Darnold's career , and 2026 finally hands it to him. He turns 29 entering his second year in Mike Macdonald's system, the front office paid Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Leonard Williams to keep the core intact, and reinforcements arrived around a championship roster.

The resume backing all of this is loud. Darnold went 14-3 as Seattle's starter after posting an identical 14-3 mark in Minnesota, and stacking two 14-win campaigns back-to-back has been done by exactly one other quarterback in league history: Tom Brady, in 2003 and 2004.

During the regular season, he threw for 4,048 yards and 25 touchdowns against 14 interceptions. Smith-Njigba fueled the passing game with a personal-best 1,793 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns on 119 catches and 163 targets.

The Super Bowl itself was more grind than showcase, a 19-of-38, 202-yard, one-touchdown outing in a 29-13 win over New England, with the defense and ground attack doing the heavy lifting.

Get past that box score, though, and the postseason speaks for itself: a rout of San Francisco in the divisional round, a 346-yard, three-touchdown NFC Championship win over the Rams , and zero turnovers across the entire January stretch after leading the league in them all year.

Ranking a title winner behind 99 players suggests his mistakes matter more than his results. Seattle opens its title defense Sept. 9 against the Patriots at Lumen Field.