Sam Darnold: QB · USC · #14.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Sam Darnold
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Two seasons in the USC quarterback room to date. On tape: 397 passing yards and 3 passing TD against Texas, Week 3, 2017.
Play style
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
54.0% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 25.9% conversion-per-dropback — 48.1% of completions land short of the sticks.
Where completions land is fact — whether incompletions were aimed deep is intent, not recorded here, so this card counts completions only. checkdown by design
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
3 of the team's 33 inside-the-5 carries (9.1%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
247Sports Nov 2
USA Today Nov 1
On3 Oct 21
Yahoo Sports Oct 16Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
Game log · Week-by-week
2017 season · 14 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 49-31vs Western Michigan | 23/33 | 289 | 0 | 2 | 8.8 | 71.0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 42-24vs No. 14 Stanford | 21/26 | 316 | 4 | 2 | 12.2 | 95.8 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 3 | W 27-24vs Texas | 28/49 | 397 | 3 | 2 | 8.1 | 54.1 | Season-high 397 yds |
| Wk 4 | W 30-20@ California | 26/38 | 223 | 2 | 1 | 5.9 | 60.5 | |
| Wk 5 | L 27-30@ No. 16 Washington State | 15/29 | 164 | 0 | 1 | 5.7 | 37.6 | |
| Wk 6 | W 38-10vs Oregon State | 23/35 | 316 | 3 | 1 | 9.0 | 67.0 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 7 | W 28-27vs Utah | 27/50 | 358 | 3 | 0 | 7.2 | 50.9 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 8 | L 14-49@ No. 13 Notre Dame | 20/28 | 229 | 2 | 1 | 8.2 | 53.0 | |
| Wk 9 | W 48-17@ Arizona State | 19/35 | 266 | 3 | 0 | 7.6 | 75.2 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 10 | W 49-35vs No. 23 Arizona | 20/26 | 311 | 2 | 1 | 12.0 | — | |
| Wk 11 | W 38-24@ Colorado | 21/34 | 329 | 2 | 0 | 9.7 | 87.3 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 12 | W 28-23vs UCLA | 17/28 | 264 | 0 | 1 | 9.4 | 74.3 | |
| Wk 14 | W 31-28vs No. 14 Stanford | 17/24 | 325 | 2 | 0 | 13.5 | 94.5 | Clean 2-TD game |
 Bowl | L 7-24vs No. 5 Ohio State | 26/45 | 356 | 0 | 1 | 7.9 | 35.0 | |
| Total | 303/480 | 4143 | 26 | 13 | 8.6 | — |
Week 7 · 2017
W 28-27
vs Utah
358 yds · 3 TD · 0 INT · QBR 50.9 · 15 rush yds (6 car)
A close one, won by 1 at home.
With R. Budrovich — 42.5 yards per punt · 4 punts · 49 long · R. Jones II — 111 rush yds (17 car) · 1 TD · 1 rec · 10 yds
The plays that mattered most
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 469 passing plays (293 completions) against the box score's 480 attempts (303 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
7.7236 of 205 QBsSack rate
5.7%94 of 205 QBsRarely sacked (94 of 205 QBs) and still 36 of 205 in Adjusted ANY/A.
Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.
Short
0–9 ydsMiddle
10–19 ydsDeep
20+ ydsOverall 63.1% completion on 480 attempts · 63 deep completions averaging 28.8 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2017 baseline
No situation moves him more than 26 percentile points from his baseline.
Deltas are vs. this player’s own season baseline, never a league average. League sack rate by down is shown as context because sack attribution isn’t incompletion-denominated.
2 seasons under Clay Helton, all balanced offenses — 21-6 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2017 season · 14 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 322 | 2.1 | 9.5 | 1.3 |
| Road5g | 242 | 1.8 | 7.4 | 0.6 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-78g | 302 | 1.9 | 8.1 | 1.2 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 287 | 1.8 | 10.1 | 0.5 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Clay Helton
Pass share
48.4%
489 pass / 522 run
Plays / game
72.2
14 games
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2017
Our Heisman model had this player inside its top 25 in 2017.
Career, closed
Gone at #3 overall.
How it ended
Two seasons at USC, 7,229 passing yards — drafted at #3 overall by the New York Jets.
Coaching lineage · 2015–2017
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Steve Sarkisian → Clay Helton. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Next stop · NFL
New York JetsEntering 9th NFL season
New York JetsEntering 9th NFL season
