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With their 38-14 win over the Washington Commanders Sunday night, the Seattle Seahawks are 6-2 and firmly in the conversation for top seed in the NFC — and their quarterback, Sam Darnold, is starting to have his name mentioned in MVP talk. Darnold completed 21 of 24 passes Sunday night for 330 yards and four touchdowns. Our NFL analysts, Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling, got together Monday to discuss Darnold’s MVP candidacy along with other intriguing candidates: Doug Farrar: What stood out to me is what stood out to me when he was playing for Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota last year. Great deep passer, understood the offense right away. There were a lot of stylistic carryovers between what O’Connell does and what (offensive coordinator) Klint Kubiak in Seattle does with the motion, under center play action, a lot of condensed formations. So, it’s not quite like-is-like, and he has, I mean, it’s a different system to a point, but really he is just taking the offense by the scruff of the neck, and I was one of the people saying, why are the Seahawks trading Geno Smith and signing Sam Darnold? And oops, boy, they got that right. Yeah, he’s a top-tier quarterback at this point. I don’t think there’s any question about that. I think when it comes to MVP, and I have to clarify that I do have a vote, the first thing is the MVP vote does not include the postseason, which I wish it would, but there’s a timing thing with the NFL honors and the Super Bowl and all that. So, I think with Sam Darnold and also with Daniel Jones, because of their pasts, there’s going to be an expectation of, well, water finds its own level, let’s see what happens. And with Darnold, that happened at the end of the regular season last year against the Lions and in the playoffs against the Rams, where that Rams defensive line just, I mean, demolished him. It was unfair. It was ugly, and Darnold has to face the Rams twice this season with a better offensive line. I mean, Seattle actually has a good offensive line, which no one up here knows what to do with that. I think there’s also the fact that he may not be the best quarterback in his own division. I mean, were I handicapping the MVP race right now, I might put Matthew Stafford ahead of Darnold, and there’s another guy who I think has a bit more … Jonathan Taylor is obviously, you know, going to be in the discussion. He’d be the first running back to win it since 2012. Josh Allen, if he keeps leading his team, you know, kind of single-handedly the way he does. And I’ll tell you guys, there are four, they’re all quarterbacks, four guys who have won the NFL MVP in their second year as a starter. It was Dan Marino, Kurt Warner, Patrick Mahomes, and Lamar Jackson. If Drake Maye keeps playing the way he’s playing, with a really iffy defense, no run game to speak of, and, you know, no disrespect to Kayshon Boutte, but when was he turning into Isaac Bruce? That happened this year. Maye is the NFL’s best deep passer. He is one of the best under pressure, and he is by far the best against disguised coverage. I did a video on this a couple weeks ago. I think if the Patriots wind up at, you know, 12-5, 13-4, I think Drake Maye has to be seriously considered as an MVP candidate, too. So, I’m not discounting the fact that Darnold has been that level of player. He might be more, or Daniel Jones might be more of an Offensive Player of the Year thing, where, “Yeah, great, congratulations, we’re glad you did this, but we’re not quite ready to crown you just yet.” And I think that’s, you know, Maye had a really weird rookie season, and he’s essentially a rookie in Josh McDaniel’s offense. There may be that, well, I can’t vote for Drake Maye yet, I don’t know, but, I mean, were I to vote right now, it would probably be Stafford. Darnold might be in my top three. I might vote for Maye before I voted for Darnold, or I might vote for Maye before I voted for anybody. That’s just how I feel about the season he’s had. Luke Easterling: I think the most fun thing about this whole MVP race, I mean, at the mid-season point, basically, is that you could probably make a strong case for like six to eight guys, and I don’t really remember the last time we had that about halfway through the season. I would throw Jaxon Smith-Njigba in there, but we’re going to have a Sam Darnold conversation. We’ve got to have a conversation about the guy who’s 23 years old and is on pace to have 2,000 receiving yards this season. DF: By the way, if the Cowboys are at all playoff relevant with that defense, Dak Prescott wins it. At that point, we can just shut the whole thing down. LE: Absolutely. Again, you know (Patrick) Mahomes is going to be in that conversation. I think Lamar Jackson has a chance if he goes on a tear down the stretch and plays the way he usually plays down the stretch and makes the Ravens playoff relevant after a 1-5 start. I think he’s going to be in that conversation, but you’re talking about like six, seven, eight guys now where they all have a legitimate shot depending on what happens down the stretch here. Again, we’re seeing great parity across the league in general in terms of surprise teams like the Colts and the Patriots and teams that you expected to be good. There’s not really that dominant team that you’re like, oh, that’s the best team in the league. You can make a strong case for six to eight teams to be the best team in the league. You make it for the six to eight players to be the best player, the most valuable player, and I think that’s great for the sport overall. DF: Yeah. Yeah. The teams and the players, those things do match up, but I think down the stretch, watch Drake Maye. What he’s doing is really unusual for a second-year quarterback who’s essentially a rookie in this system. We have not seen his like before in a while, so I’ll be fascinated to see how he responds down the stretch because I mean that, you know, the Patriots don’t care whether he’s MVP or not. They probably give him a bonus and move on, but to have your young quarterback play at this level consistently over and over is quite something. What would be the path for Sam Darnold to win MVP this season? DF: Well, again, he has to face the Rams twice. The Rams gave him the most trouble and the Rams stunt like crazy. They don’t blitz a lot, but they stunt like crazy. Of course, the Seahawks stunt the most in the NFL, so he sees that a lot in practice. They have the Vikings coming up. They have the Rams twice. They have the Falcons, whose defense can be either great or horrible. We just don’t know. And they have the Colts, so they have enough really highly regarded teams that if he just goes through the rest of the season with a bulldozer and answers all those questions, I think there are enough quality opponents for him to really be in the discussion. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be in the discussion. I just, when I look at different quarterbacks and what they’ve done, I think he’s top three to five in the NFL, no question. Does that make him an MVP in my mind? I don’t know. I’m not ready to say here or there, speaking to Luke’s point about the parity and how you can make a case for so many different guys. That’s kind of where I am with Darnold or anybody. I don’t have a definitive vote. Last year, I mean, I know Josh Allen won it. I was ready to say Lamar was the MVP halfway through the season, so this is a bit different. All right, we’ll see. Let us know in the comments below who you think the MVP of the midseason is, and make sure to like and subscribe for more NFL content.
