One of the most fascinating things about the NFL, American football played at its highest level, is how important situations are.
Not just moments on the field, like figuring out whether a team is going to run or pass on 3rd & 3 with 1:20 left on the clock, but in the franchises themselves, where a good structure and strong roster can elevate even average players to greatness (paging Nick Foles) while the opposite is also true for even the best players, like Dan Marino, who many believe to be the best quarterback to ever play the game, though he couldn’t win a Super Bowl due to his teammates’ failings.
It is the idea of situations, and being put in a good situation, which really shapes this Super Bowl on Sunday.
Sam Darnold will quarterback the favourites on Sunday night, the Seattle Seahawks, knowing a win at Levi’s Stadium would complete the most unlikely and topsy-turvy career path before he even turns 29.
Darnold was the boy phenom in California, where he grew up. Once he had chosen to go to the University of Southern California, historically the biggest football school west of Texas, the chatter was already starting about which NFL team he would end up with. Tipped as the number one pick in the draft years before he was even eligible, there was talk of teams willing to “Scam for Sam” – lose games at the end of the season to tank their season and be in position to draft Darnold first overall and turn around their franchise.
In the end, Darnold would end up being the third pick in the draft and going to the ever-dysfunctional New York Jets. Wracked by incompetence, the franchise put Darnold behind a holey offensive line, surrounded him with uninspiring talent and he was coached by a succession of playcallers who failed him.
Eventually, after three unhappy years, Darnold was traded to Carolina.
With the equally miserable Panthers, a similar story unfolded. Eventually, Darnold was released to become a free agent, having never been surrounded by anything remotely resembling competence. His confidence was shot, his career was presumed dead, and the Californian was left to look for a backup job wherever it would take him, but for the first time in his career, he had agency. He had a choice.
Darnold wanted nothing more than to work with an exceptional coach and offensive talent. Kyle Shanahan, arguably the greatest playcaller of his generation, offered him a job as San Francisco’s backup and he jumped at the chance. While Darnold sat behind starter Brock Purdy all season, it was his first opportunity to take stock and to learn. For the first time in his career, he was developing.
When the Minnesota Vikings offered Darnold the chance to compete for a job with rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy under another brilliant playcaller in Kevin O’Connell, Darnold wisely said yes. McCarthy’s injury thrust Darnold into the starter role, and four months later, he had become the first-ever quarterback to win 14 games in their first season with a new team.
What Minnesota presented Darnold with was a great situation. A coach who knew how to get the best out of him, who could scheme up plays that emphasised his strengths but hid his deficiencies, a defensive unit that was stocked with talent, led by another brilliant coach in Brian Flores, and then the best wide receiver in the league, Justin Jefferson, to throw the ball to.
It’s funny how much easier the game gets when you have those things.
Grant Udinski coached Darnold in Carolina and Minnesota, and credits Darnold for his resilience and never-ending positivity in the face of such struggle.
“He had been through a lot, especially in such a short time frame; he had so many experiences that he wasn’t supported the way he should have been,” Udinski said.
“It’s not like he lacked confidence. I just don’t think he felt the same support or ability to fully be himself that maybe, if he was empowered as a quarterback and a great teammate, he would have felt.”
His season with the Vikings made Darnold an in-demand free agent, and last year he signed a three-year, $100m contract with Seattle. Last month, he became the first quarterback in NFL history to record 14 wins in his first season with two different teams in back-to-back seasons.
For his opposite number, Drake Maye, the path has been a lot more straightforward. A starter for his local college, the University of North Carolina, Maye’s rocket arm and prototypical build had scouts salivating, but in a team bereft of talent that wasn’t competing for honours, there was still doubt.
Even after being selected third overall by the New England Patriots, things weren’t going to be easy. First-time head coach Jerod Mayo struggled, the team went 4-13 and owner Robert Kraft fired Mayo in what he called “an untenable situation.”
New executives and a new head coach, Pats legend Mike Vrabel, who won the NFL Coach of the Year at this week’s annual awards, surrounded Maye with talent. They tweaked the playbook to make the most out of his athleticism and they took advantage of one of the league’s easiest schedules to win 14 games and go from being one of the worst teams in the AFC to the very best.
“From day one, I feel like the guys have really taken what Coach Vrabel has wanted to do with us and have just really applied it to their lives in every single way,” Maye said yesterday.
“Whether it’s on the field, off the field, getting treatment, doing little things, making great decisions off the field. I think the biggest thing is just – Coach Vrabel always says he treats us how we treat the team. I think that’s how guys have taken this year, and I think it’s just rallying together and wanting to play for each other.”
According to the pre-season odds from the bookmakers, this is the most unlikely Super Bowl in more than 50 years. A Seattle team that bet on a first-round bust to be the final piece of their jigsaw came through one of the most difficult divisions in football to win the NFC. The Patriots drafted a raw talent and improved the situation around him enough to not just compete, but blow away the competition.
“What a journey,” Maye said about Darnold this week.
“What a career he’s had, just to battle the life of the NFL, and knowing that his first opportunity, obviously, he got put in a scenario where they decided to move on.
“And from there, he’s made ’em pay ever since. He’s battled not playing for years, and being the backup to getting his chance, and just making the most of it. It’s been awesome to see.”
The lesson from this Super Bowl, whoever wins, is that team results and individual struggles do not define a player. In this sport, in this league, the situation that you find yourself in goes a long way to defining how well you can perform. Maye knows that may befall him one day. It is not lost on either of these young men.
And now these two young quarterbacks are both playing in their first Super Bowl, where one of them will write their name into history and both of them will be forever remembered for their part in two memorable turnarounds.
Now that’s a good situation to be in.
