Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold hasn’t looked rattled by any defense during his Super Bowl run this season, but one moment from early in his career continues to follow him. Back in his second NFL season with the New York Jets, Darnold endured a nightmare outing against the New England Patriots. In that Week 7 game in 2019, Darnold’s team faced a 33-0 loss, followed by a hot-mic moment where he admitted the defense had him “seeing ghosts.”

Now, with Sam Darnold set to face the Patriots again, this time in Super Bowl LX, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky sent a message to the QB, highlighting that those early struggles shouldn’t define Darnold anymore. 

“I remember doing the breakdown honestly after (the Jets’ 33-0 loss to the Patriots in 2019) that morning,” Dan Orlovsky said on the latest episode of the Dan Patrick Show. “It was one of my first times on Get Up, and I, still to this day, am adamant that wasn’t a Sam Darnold thing. I think a lot of quarterbacks would have done that because New England showed the same thing all the time and brought something different.”

“So, a lot of quarterbacks, I think, were going to struggle with that,” Orlovsky added. “Certainly, young kids, the first time you’re ever experiencing, you’re like I have no idea what’s going on.”

Orlovsky pointed out just how elite the Patriots’ defense was in 2019. Built under former Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick, the defensive unit had rare continuity and championship experience when they faced off against Sam Darnold. In 2018, the Patriots even won the Super Bowl by holding the Los Angeles Rams to only 3 points. 

Former Patriots safety Duron Harmon, who played in that very game, recently explained how experience gave New England the edge over Darnold that night.

“You’re talking about a very veteran, older defense, guys who had played in that system for 6-7 years,” Harmon recently said in an interview with Karen Guregian. “We knew what to do and how to manipulate a young quarterback. We knew what to do to make him shudder, and that’s what we did that night. He hadn’t seen anything like it.”

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Harmon detailed how the Patriots mixed blitz packages and disguises – showing pressure before dropping into Cover-2, or showing blitz and then suddenly attacking the QB at full speed. For a young quarterback like Darnold, still learning NFL defenses, it was chaos. The result? One of the roughest performances of Darnold’s career.

That night, New England held Sam Darnold to just 86 passing yards and intercepted him four times, completely shutting down the Jets’ offense. It’s no surprise the moment lingered with Darnold even as he changed teams. But Dan Orlovsky now believes that what people called “seeing ghosts” was really a young QB processing too much, too fast.

“I think the admission is just his [Sam Darnold] reality,” Orlovsky said. “I think he’s comfortable in who he is and whatnot. So, even back then, I still believed that Sam had a great comfort in his skin. I think seeing ghosts is when you start to chase things that aren’t there from the start.”

At 28, Darnold is now leading the Seahawks to the Super Bowl. The current Patriots defense, ranked eighth in total defense, still plays smart, disciplined football, but it doesn’t have the same long-tenured core as the 2019 group. Could they still confuse Darnold a few times? Sure, but the quarterback certainly feels like he won’t be bothered by it.

Sam Darnold addresses the infamous remark related to his struggles 

That “seeing ghosts” comment became a viral label that followed Sam Darnold for years. But after Seattle’s 31–27 NFC Championship win over the Rams, the quarterback finally addressed it and sounded unfazed.

“Yeah, I almost forgot about that. So thanks,” Sam Darnold told reporters. “There was a lot that I didn’t know back then, so I’m just going to continue to learn and grow in this great game.”

Instead of defensiveness, there’s perspective in Darnold’s response, and his comeback career arc explains why. It all started with early struggles with the Jets, which spilled into a difficult 2020 season, when Darnold threw for 2,208 yards, nine touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. That year, the Jets also went 2-10 with Darnold as a starter, so he was eventually traded to the Carolina Panthers. From there, Darnold bounced around teams, searching for stability and confidence in the NFL.

Everything changed with the Minnesota Vikings as Sam Darnold started in place of injured rookie J.J. McCarthy and delivered the best season of his career. In 2024, Darnold threw for 4,319 yards, 35 TDs, and 12 INTs while leading Minnesota to a 14–3 record. Then, even though the Vikings didn’t retain Darnold, another team in the league took notice.

The Seahawks handed Darnold a $100.5 million deal last offseason, betting on his growth, and that gamble paid off. In the 2025 regular season, Darnold threw for 4,048 yards with 25 TDs and 14 INTs to lead Seattle to a 14–3 record, which has now turned into a deep postseason run.

Moreover, whether the Seahawks win or lose in Super Bowl LX, Sam Darnold’s journey from being overwhelmed by defenses to being a Championship-caliber QB is already remarkable. So, this time around, against the Patriots, it’s hard to imagine him seeing ghosts again.