Six days ago, the Seahawks struck a deal with quarterback Sam Darnold. He has since signed it.
And the details of the deal remain under lock and key.
Dozens of contracts have been filed and dissected over the past week. To date, Darnold’s hasn’t shown up. Anywhere.
We’ve shaken the trees we usually shake in search of contract details. We shook it again this morning, after sharing with the source the theory that it’s being kept hidden. The source agreed.
It can’t stay hidden forever. The goal might be to delay it past the point at which most will noice.
It was reported as a three-year, $100.5 million deal. The biggest question is whether it has a year-to-year structure, like the three-year, $75 million base deal signed by Geno Smith in 2023.
Depending on the amount of full guarantees in 2026, it’s possible that Darnold is getting one year to show that last year wasn’t an aberration, and that the Seahawks will be able to cut Darnold loose if he reverts to a ghost-seeing pumpkin without Kevin O’Connell, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson.
If so, that would show he didn’t have a very robust market, with no one presumably offering him multiple years of fully-guaranteed compensation.
Regardless of the specific reason(s), the fact remains that, despite many of the deals being available for analysis and comment, Darnold’s deal remains a question mark.
It can’t stay under wraps forever. Whenever it surfaces, we’ll break it all down.
