Stability may have done wonders for Sam Darnold.
After a year with the 49ers where he rested his body but expanded his mind in a football sense, Darnold looked like a new man starting at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1.
The No. 3 overall pick the 2018 NFL Draft, Darnold had an impressive opener in a 28-6 road win over the New York Giants, completing 19 of 24 passes for 208 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
The 49ers, 1-0 after a 32-19 win over the New York Jets, represent a big step up in class, but Darnold believes he’s got a better handle on the pressures of being an NFL starter after backing up Brock Purdy last season.
One of the things he learned from Purdy was to focus on executing the offense and keep all outside forces at bay.
“When you’re a quarterback, sometimes you can feel everything kind of collapsing on you, not in a game, but theoretically as a whole,” Darnold told reporters this week. “When things aren’t going your way you can feel the weight of the world a little bit. It’s your job to put the ball in your playmakers hands and go run and make a play.
“I think it’s as simple as that sometimes for me.”
Darnold watched and prepared under the tutelage of head coach Kyle Shanahan, getting a season to decompress and rebuild his career after three seasons with the Jets and two with the Carolina Panthers. Prior to San Francisco, Darnold played for four head coaches and five offensive coordinators.
“Sam had been in a lot of different offenses and a few different teams,” Shanahan said. “He could always make plays, but he got used to what we were asking. It’s hard when you ask some people to do stuff that they haven’t done before, because sometimes you’ve got to get worse before you get better. But Sam came in with such a good mindset. He was so detailed in what he did, really never wavered and really tried to pick stuff up.”
A free agent in 2023, Darnold chose to compete with Trey Lance for the backup job rather than sign with another team in turmoil. He started only one game with the 49ers — a 21-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the last game of the regular season — but appeared in parts of 10 contests.
Brandon Allen, Purdy’s current backup and the No. 3 quarterback last season, said Darnold had no sense of entitlement or expectations other than supporting Purdy and learning a new system.
Sam Darnold is congratulated by 49ers teammates after scoring a touchdown in a Week 18 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at Levi’s Stadium last season. Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group
“Even from the day he got here when he and Trey were going back and forth and Brock was healing, you never got the feeling he was big-timing anybody,” Allen said. “It was all positivity with him.”
Purdy, for one, appreciated it.
“Sam’s the man. I absolutely love what he has done for this team in the quarterback room last year for Brandon and I,” Purdy said. “He helped me prepare and gave me everything that he had to help me be successful. I’ll always be grateful for that. He’s in a great situation, great offense, great players around him.”
A year in the 49ers’ environment gave Minnesota the confidence to sign Darnold to a one-year, $10 million contract as the starter. With J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings’ recent first-round pick out of Michigan, out for the season with a torn ACL, Darnold isn’t headed to the bench anytime soon.
“I learned so much last year,” Darnold said. “Just what we did every single week, being able to learn every game plan and study throughout the week. With all the different things that we had to know as quarterbacks going into the game, being able to study and know all of it — without really having the reps throughout the week — I think I learned a ton about myself and learned a lot of football.”
At 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, Darnold’s passing skills are top tier. But his 22-35 record as a starter includes 57 interceptions as Darnold too often forced the issue for poor teams.
“I was always impressed with the arm talent,” 49ers linebacker Fred Warner said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen a natural thrower of the football as Sam.”
Shanahan’s job, along with quarterbacks coach Brian Griese, was to work on Darnold’s confidence after five seasons in which his coordinators were Jeremy Bates, Dowell Loggains, Joe Brady, Jeff Nixon and Ben McAdoo. Of those five, only Brady, currently with the Buffalo Bills, is still an NFL coordinator.
With the 49ers, Darnold never carried himself as the former No. 3 pick out of USC, nor did he act like an aggrieved party when things didn’t work out with the Jets and Panthers.
“I’ve known Sam for a long time now,” said Christian McCaffrey, a teammate in Carolina. “He’s become one of my better friends and it’s cool to see him get an opportunity because he deserves it. He’s always been extremely talented and someone who can play in this league.”
For Darnold, part of the appeal of Minnesota was the presence of head coach Kevin O’Connell, a former offensive coordinator under Sean McVay with the Rams and indirectly part of the Shanahan coaching tree. McVay and Shanahan both got their start in Washington as young assistants.
Under O’Connell, Darnold is operating an up-to-date offense headlined by Justin Jefferson, the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. Along with Jefferson, Minnesota boasts receiver Jordan Addison and a running game featuring Aaron Jones, a former Green Bay Packer and 49ers nemesis.
“I thought it was a real good spot for him,” Shanahan said. “I was hoping he’d find no good spots and come back here. But I was happy for him. He got this opportunity because Sam more than deserves it. Sam is a starting quarterback in this league and should run with it.”
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Allen thought the same thing.
“If you look at what Kevin O’Connell’s done here and the weapons they have, I’d say it’s very similar to here,” Allen said. It’s an offense you want to be a part of.”
After playing for poor teams for five seasons, Darnold took note of how a winning team operates last season.
“It was huge. Just being able to learn how they do things over there, not only schematically, but just as an organization,” Darnold said. “It was great to be able to be a part of for a year and to be able to have the team that we had last year was amazing to be part of.”
