Peyton Manning pitches perfect Sam Darnold movie for Seahawks in Week 18

Sam Darnold’s journey has rarely followed a straight line, which is exactly why Peyton Manning believes the Seahawks’ field general has authored one of the NFL’s most compelling storylines heading into Week 18.

During a recent appearance on ManningCast 2025, Manning framed Darnold’s resurgence as something straight out of Hollywood, blending technical growth with long-awaited redemption. While breaking down Darnold’s development, Manning emphasized how much of his success is rooted in refinement rather than raw talent.

“Sam [Darnold] has talked about how he learned the footwork,” said Peyton Manning, via NFL on ESPN. “He learned the discipline of reading defenses and going through a progression. Klint Kubiak was in San Fran[cisco] with him, now he’s in Seattle with him. They’re speaking the same language. There’s a reason this guy’s won 13 games two seasons in a row. That is not easy to do.”

Manning’s point centered on continuity and discipline, the two things Darnold lacked early in his career but has clearly found across stops in the Minnesota Vikings and now Seattle. Manning then leaned fully into the cinematic angle, joking about how perfectly the timing aligns with the NFL calendar.

“It’s a perfect movie to come out for the holidays, it’s gonna be streamed though, of course on ESPN and Hulu. Yeah, we’re not big in the theaters,” Manning added.

Now this is a movie we'd want to watch @OmahaProd pic.twitter.com/nN5M3CIjTh

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 4, 2026

The humor underscored a serious point — Darnold’s arc has become one of the league’s most unexpected success stories. That storyline carries extra weight because of what happened a year ago.

In 2024, Darnold and the Vikings entered Week 18 against the Detroit Lions with home-field advantage on the line, and everything unraveled. Now, in 2025, he finds himself in a nearly identical position, but with the Seattle Seahawks, facing the San Francisco 49ers with an NFC West title and a first-round bye at stake. This time, the outcome is still being written.

Seattle’s decision to move on from Geno Smith and hand the offense to Darnold was widely questioned last offseason. Instead, it has paid off in historic fashion. With his 13th win of the season against Carolina, Darnold joined Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Brett Favre as the only quarterbacks in NFL history with back-to-back 13-win seasons, and he’s the only one to do it with two different teams.

As the regular season reaches its final chapter, Darnold now stands at a crossroads between past disappointment and lasting validation. If Week 18 delivers the ending Manning teased, the sequel may be just beginning in Seattle.

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