According to Mike Sando’s annual tiers list, Sam Darnold is only the 14th best quarterback in the NFL. In Jeremy Fowler’s poll of scouts, execs and coaches, he’s only worthy of an honourable mention.

Darnold deserves more credit than this.

He is being unfairly judged because he spent his formative years in New York before having to completely rebuild his career. He’s been robbed of an opportunity to compile stats and provide a portfolio of results to bolster his standing over multiple seasons.

The rankings should better represent the player Darnold has now become — because this isn’t a career success ranking or a projection based on potential. It’s about who’s better than who in 2026.

It seems he’ll never shake off the early struggles he had with a wretched Jets franchise. He is given no benefit of the doubt today, whilst others are judged with a far more complimentary eye.

Take Lamar Jackson. He is unquestionably one of the NFL’s most physically impressive players. He is capable, on top form, of being the league’s MVP — an award he has won twice.

However — Jackson turns 30 in January and there are now signs that perhaps his great ability as a runner is waning. His 349 rushing yards last season are easily the lowest of his career.

Mixed in with the MVP seasons in Baltimore are years where he threw nearly as many picks as touchdowns (2021 — 16/13) and he’s missed 15 games in the last five seasons.

He’s also 3-5 in the playoffs with 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His post-season passer rating is 84.6 and his completion percentage is 60.6%.

None of this is to say Jackson should be ranked below Darnold or that he’s wildly overrated. I’m simply noting that there’s nuance with all of these players. We focus on Darnold’s issues to an extreme level, while ignoring the positives. I’d say we do the reverse with Jackson — who is still considered one of the NFL’s very best even after an underwhelming 2025 and with signs of decline starting to emerge.

Let’s reflect on why Darnold should be ranked higher and start with the obvious. He’s now a Super Bowl winner with the Seahawks and he’s won 28 regular season games in the last two seasons.

This is the kind of record that some of the players listed higher than Darnold can only dream of.

Some will argue that circumstances and environment have positively impacted him. He’s been well coached by Kevin O’Connell and Klint Kubiak. He’s been able to throw to Justin Jefferson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Both teams had a strong complementary defense.

Isn’t that the case for other quarterbacks too?

Brock Purdy, a former seventh round pick, has clearly benefited from playing for Kyle Shanahan. He has played on a loaded 49ers team. Jared Goff’s career has been salvaged by playing for Ben Johnson — after Sean McVay decided he wasn’t good enough. Now with the Bears, Johnson is equally having a very positive impact on Caleb Williams. Goff and Williams have a collection of good weapons to work with.

Patrick Mahomes might be the most talented quarterback to ever play the game. Last time I checked though he did still play for Andy Reid, has had excellent options to throw to and had elite defensive team-mates.

If we’re going to knock Darnold for his support system, let’s be consistent.

Not to mention — without Darnold the Vikings, with the same supporting cast, regressed from 14-3 to 9-8. After signing him the Seahawks improved from 10-7 to 14-3.

One of the biggest complaints about Darnold are his number of turnovers. The reality from last season, however, is quite interesting.

Darnold threw 19 turnover worthy plays. Let’s look at how that compares to some of the other quarterbacks:

Baker Mayfield — 28
Trevor Lawrence — 22
Patrick Mahomes — 20
Bo Nix — 20
Sam Darnold — 19
Caleb Williams — 19
Matthew Stafford — 19
Dak Prescott — 19
Drake Maye — 17
Justin Herbert — 15
Jordan Love — 14
Jared Goff — 13
Lamar Jackson — 12
Brock Purdy — 11

Darnold’s number of turnover worthy plays is the exact same as Stafford, Prescott and Williams. He threw fewer TWP’s than Mahomes and Mayfield.

Let’s also consider that Darnold played all 17 of Seattle’s regular season games. Mahomes started 14 games before his injury, Love started 15 for the Packers, Herbert started 16 games, Jackson 13 and Purdy just nine. There are several players below Darnold who, had they played 17 games, would’ve likely been above him on the list.

The concept of him having a big problem with turnovers seems to stem from a handful of standout moments in his career. The ‘seeing ghosts’ quote with the Jets, the meltdown at the end of the 2024 season against the Lions and Rams, plus the four-interception game in LA in 2025.

People linger too much on these and not enough on the good things he’s done in the last couple of seasons.

For example, his performance in the NFC Championship game this year was outstanding. He outgunned Matthew Stafford on a night where Seattle’s defense struggled and the offense only managed 75 rushing yards. Darnold finished with 346 passing yards, three touchdowns and zero turnovers.

All three scores were well executed by the quarterback — especially his first of the night to Jaxon Smith-Njigba under severe pressure:

He also kicked things off with a brilliant downfield bomb to Rashid Shaheed.

That was a winning performance when it mattered most. Without Darnold and the passing attack, the Rams play the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

How many big-game moments has Dak Prescott had like that, for all his gaudy numbers over the years? Or Jared Goff? Or Justin Herbert? Or Jordan Love? Or even Lamar Jackson for that matter?

Everyone focuses on the weird two-point conversion in the week 16 win against the Rams. How about Darnold’s epic drive to win the game, where he had to throw two redzone touchdowns to clinch an overtime victory? High pressure moments against a top opponent. Darnold delivers again.

What about his nearly flawless first half performance on the road against the Commanders on Sunday Night Football? Or 3rd and 10 against the 49ers with 4:02 remaining, leading 13-3 with the NFC West up for grabs? Darnold extends the play, then throws across his body to Cooper Kupp for a huge 3rd and 10 conversion to clinch the game.

Now let’s look at his time in Minnesota. He threw 347 passing yards, scored five passing touchdowns and had a perfect 157.9 passer rating against the Falcons — breaking a Vikings record. He delivered a clutch game-winning drive to win in Chicago 30-27 in overtime.

When the Vikings beat the Packers 27-25 in week 17, the entire Vikings roster and staff waited for him in the locker room and lifted him into the air after a three-touchdown, 377 yard passing performance on a day where Minnesota ran for 69 yards at 2.65 YPC.

Had these moments occurred 3-4 years into his career, having been drafted by a normal franchise, we’d all be raving about his trajectory. Instead, he’s had to take the long road to get to this point. Yet he still only recently turned 29-years-old.

We never really hear as much about the horror-moments other quarterbacks have faced in their career.

Matthew Stafford has 15 games where he threw three or more interceptions. On four occasions he threw four picks and he even had a five-interception game against a bad Seahawks team for the Lions.

Lamar Jackson had a four interception game against the Browns in 2021. Jared Goff has a four and a five interception game on his rap sheet. Joe Burrow threw four picks against the Steelers in 2022.

The point is — good quarterbacks have bad games. Darnold has had bad games. He will have more bad games in the future. Yet he’s also had the kind of career-defining moments that should wash away any lingering priors people had about him to the extent he’s somehow still viewed as a lesser quarterback.

Darnold is also more than a mere facilitator. Last year he threw 29 big time throws in the regular season — the fourth most. In 2024 he threw 33 BTT’s — the third most.

Here are the BTT leaders for the last two seasons:

Matthew Stafford — 70
Sam Darnold — 62
Josh Allen — 60
Joe Burrow — 56
Justin Herbert — 55
Caleb Williams — 52
Bo Nix — 52
Baker Mayfield — 50
Dak Prescott — 45
Lamar Jackson — 39

On top of this:

— His ‘average yards per completion’ is 8.2 yards — good for joint second in the league alongside Jared Goff

— He’s seventh for yards per game, sandwiched between Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield

— His 60 touchdown passes are sixth most — level with Joe Burrow and two behind Lamar Jackson

— His quarterback rating (100.9) is seventh best, just below Josh Allen

— His touchdown percentage (5.9%) is tied for fifth with Matthew Stafford

— His completion percentage (66.9%) ranks 8th — ahead of Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Allen, Jackson, Stafford and Mahomes

— He has the third most passing yards (8367) behind Goff and Stafford

Darnold is winning at a Championship level, is making as many big plays as anyone else and is only throwing risky passes at the same level as the players at the top of the tier list. He’s in the top-10 for all meaningful stats and often ahead of many of the top ranked players.

So why isn’t he higher?

Let’s go back to Sando’s poll for his tiers list:

I think it’s pretty clear that if you were doing a ranking today — Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford should be comfortably the top three.

Joe Burrow could’ve been in that conversation had he been able to stay healthy. Instead, he’s just outside that top tier.

After that, there’s a group of quarterbacks who could all jockey for position in the second and third tier.

I’d have no problem with people putting Lamar Jackson next based on his résumé, overlooking the possibility of him declining physically.

Darnold should be in the conversation to be next, along with the likes of Dak Prescott, Jared Goff and Justin Herbert. They should be the top-nine in my opinion.

It’s insulting that anyone would put Jayden Daniels ahead of Darnold. He’s had one successful rookie season and one injury-ravaged season. His frame and durability was a massive concern coming into the league and now it already looks like an issue. He should be viewed as a player with a ton to prove in 2026, not someone who ranks above a player of Darnold’s proven ability.

Drake Maye and Caleb Williams both took big steps forward last year. Yet Maye also looked exposed in the Super Bowl and didn’t play well in the playoffs generally. We’ll learn a lot about him this year but to be ranked 8th as he was in Sando’s tier list feels a bit reactive to last season which could end up being a bit of mirage for the Patriots in general.

For example — I think I’ve heard more about Darnold not playing well in the Super Bowl than Maye. How’s that right?

I am at a loss to understand why Jordan Love is ranked 10th in Sando’s poll, four spots ahead of Darnold. It makes no sense on a performance or consistency basis. He is a major question mark for the Packers.

Brock Purdy is not better than Sam Darnold and neither is Baker Mayfield, despite an electric start to 2025 before falling off dramatically (one of the reasons why the Buccs might be hesitant to pay him now).

For me Darnold is clearly one of the nine best quarterbacks in the NFL currently. Others, such as Williams or Maye, might have more potential. In the here and now, Darnold deserves to be ranked above them.

I can’t help but think the reason for his low ranking might be stats like QBR (19th) and EPA (15th), which had him middle of the pack. In that case, shouldn’t CJ Stroud be higher? He was 11th for QBR and 14th for EPA. Does anyone truly think that he played to those levels in 2025?

Lamar Jackson was 20th for EPA. Brock Purdy was 2nd for QBR, with Mac Jones 10th. Jared Goff and Caleb Williams ranked in the same range as Darnold for QBR.

Therfore, I find it hard to believe these two data points had a big impact alone.

It might be the way the world views Darnold is reflective of the way they view the Seahawks too. There seems to be an air of — ‘sure, they won the Super Bowl — but how good are they really?’

They’ve forgotten they went unbeaten from November 16th. They’ve forgotten they actually beat the Rams twice — and that the two-point conversion didn’t determine an entire season (so much happened in that game after the crazy play). They battered a 49ers team 41-6 that had just beaten the defending Champion Eagles in Philadelphia and outgunned the Bears in week 17. The Seahawks swatted aside the AFC Champions in the Super Bowl.

They are being undersold going into 2026 and people are dropping the ball with the quarterback too.

Darnold shouldn’t have anything left to prove other than how far he can take his career rejuvenation. He should be viewed as a player who has already proven the critics wrong — and claimed a place among the nine or ten best players at his position.