Usage / Role
92%
Featured offensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2015-2017USC
Sam Darnold
QB • 6'4" • 220 lbs • Capistrano Beach, CA, USA
Balanced quarterback profileVolume operator
Sam Darnold is a balanced quarterback profile with 14.8 usage in the latest tracked season.
Impact Production
33
Developing production for a quarterback
lowelite
Reliability
70
Reliable weekly contributor
lowhigh
Star Power
45
Limited ceiling signals so far
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2017 Postseason · USC
1516161717
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 3
- Program Path
- USC
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Ohio State
Player Story
Sam Darnold built his college career from 2015 through 2017 as a quarterback from Capistrano Beach, CA wearing No. 14, spending time with USC. The clearest part of Sam Darnold's career was his passing role: 7,229...
Read the story4★
- Committed To
- USC
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2015
NFL Draft
- Draft Year
- 2018
- Selection
- Round 1 · Pick 3
- Overall
- No. 3
- NFL Team
- New York Jets
Sam Darnold, QB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2017 Postseason · USC. Sam Darnold is a balanced quarterback profile with 14.8 usage in the latest tracked season.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Total offense
- 7,561
- Passing yards
- 7,229
- Rushing yards
- 332
- Touchdowns
- 64
Featured Highlight
Watch Sam Darnold on film
Sam Darnold USC Highlights
2017 · USC · Player Highlight
Sam Darnold college highlights at USC.
- Season
- 2017
- Type
- Player highlight
Quick Answers
Sam Darnold quick answers
- Latest team and position
- USC · QB
- Career Total Offense
- 7,561
- Tracked sample
- 3 unique seasons · 5 entries · 27 games
- Best season
- 2017 Postseason · USC
- Top game
- Ohio State
- Recruit profile
- 4-star · San Clemente · USC
- High school pipeline
- Hoover · 53 FBS recruits · 4 drafted players
- NFL Draft
- 2018 · Round 1 · Pick 3 · New York Jets
- Latest roster
- No. 14 · Class 2017
- 2017 Total offense rank
- 4,225 total offense · QB 7th (top 3%) · Pac-12 1st (top 1%) · National 7th (top 1%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Total Offense | Pass Yds | Rush Yds | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Regular Season | USC | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| 2016 Postseason | USC | 13 | 473 | 453 | 20 | 5 | 62.3 |
| 2016 Regular Season | USC | 13 | 2,863 | 2,633 | 230 | 28 | 62.3 |
| 2017 Postseason | USC | 14 | 338 | 356 | -18 | 0 | 70.6 |
| 2017 Regular Season | USC | 14 | 3,887 | 3,787 | 100 | 31 | 70.6 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Sam Darnold
Sam Darnold played QB for USC. Across 3 tracked seasons, Sam Darnold recorded 7,229 passing yards, 332 rushing yards, and 5 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2017 with USC.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2017 Postseason
USC paired 4,225 primary output with 62.7 efficiency.
Supporting note
2017 Postseason role shape
pass-led usage with 62.7 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value stayed steady
2017 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Ohio State
Loss with 338 yards of offense and 53.7 efficiency. It landed in the 78.6th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2017 Postseason · USC
Games
14
Primary Metric / G
301.8
Efficiency
62.7
Usage
14.8
Consistency
86.9
Best Game by takeover score
Ohio State
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
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Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. Ohio State: 338. Western Michigan: 283. Stanford: 320. Texas: 385. California: 237. Washington State: 189. Oregon State: 298. Utah: 373. Notre Dame: 236. Arizona State: 285. Arizona: 321. Colorado: 360. UCLA: 274. Stanford: 326
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
Low volumeHigh quality
High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Ohio State: 56 by 53.7. Western Michigan: 38 by 54.6. Stanford: 28 by 67.5. Texas: 55 by 52.1. California: 40 by 69.2. Washington State: 38 by 53.2. Oregon State: 39 by 57.4. Utah: 56 by 59.7. Notre Dame: 37 by 58.3. Arizona State: 39 by 66.3. Arizona: 31 by 70.3. Colorado: 37 by 85.6. UCLA: 33 by 61.3. Stanford: 28 by 68.3
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins314.7 · Games = 11 · +60.4 vs Losses
Losses254.3 · Games = 3 · -60.4 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
14 games
Featured metric
Total Offense
Top game by takeover score
Ohio State
Best efficiency game
85.6 vs Colorado
| Result | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 12/30 | @ Ohio State300-yard game | L 7-24 | 26 | 45 | 356 | 57.8 | 0 | 1 | 53.7 | 11 | -18 | -1.60 | 0 | 14 |
| Sat 12/2 | vs Stanford300-yard game | W 31-28 | 17 | 24 | 325 | 70.8 | 2 | 0 | 68.3 | 4 | 1 | 0.30 | 0 | 7 |
| Sun 11/19 | vs UCLA | W 28-23 | 17 | 28 | 264 | 60.7 | 0 | 1 | 61.3 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Sat 11/11 | @ Colorado300-yard game · 3+ TD | W 38-24 | 21 | 34 | 329 | 61.8 | 2 | 0 | 85.6 | 3 | 31 | 10.30 | 1 | 24 |
| Sun 11/5 | vs Arizona300-yard game | W 49-35 | 20 | 26 | 311 | 76.9 | 2 | 1 | 70.3 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Sun 10/29 | @ Arizona State3+ TD | W 48-17 | 19 | 35 | 266 | 54.3 | 3 | 0 | 66.3 | 4 | 19 | 4.80 | 0 | 39 |
| Sat 10/21 | @ Notre Dame | L 14-49 | 20 | 28 | 229 | 71.4 | 2 | 1 | 58.3 | 9 | 7 | 0.80 | 0 | 18 |
| Sun 10/15 | vs Utah300-yard game · 3+ TD | W 28-27 | 27 | 50 | 358 | 54.0 | 3 | 0 | 59.7 | 6 | 15 | 2.50 | 0 | 14 |
| Sat 10/7 | vs Oregon State300-yard game · 3+ TD | W 38-10 | 23 | 35 | 316 | 65.7 | 3 | 1 | 57.4 | 4 | -18 | -4.50 | 0 | 7 |
| Sat 9/30 | @ Washington State | L 27-30 | 15 | 29 | 164 | 51.7 | 0 | 1 | 53.2 | 9 | 25 | 2.80 | 2 | 11 |
| Sat 9/23 | @ California | W 30-20 | 26 | 38 | 223 | 68.4 | 2 | 1 | 69.2 | 2 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 19 |
| Sun 9/17 | vs Texas300-yard game · 3+ TD | W 27-24 | 28 | 49 | 397 | 57.1 | 3 | 2 | 52.1 | 6 | -12 | -2 | 0 | 10 |
| Sun 9/10 | vs Stanford300-yard game · 3+ TD | W 42-24 | 21 | 26 | 316 | 80.8 | 4 | 2 | 67.5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Sat 9/2 | vs Western Michigan | W 49-31 | 23 | 33 | 289 | 69.7 | 0 | 2 | 54.6 | 5 | -6 | -1.20 | 1 | 11 |
Player Story
Sam Darnold story
Sam Darnold built his college career from 2015 through 2017 as a quarterback from Capistrano Beach, CA wearing No. 14, spending time with USC. The clearest part of Sam Darnold's career was his passing role: 7,229 passing yards, 57 touchdown passes, 846 attempts, and 332 rushing yards across 27 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2017 with USC. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.
Quarterback careers are usually judged first by volume, efficiency, and scoring chances. His career also includes 332 rushing yards and 5 tackles, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 27 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across USC.
The arc is straightforward: Sam Darnold moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
USC
2015-2017
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
20152016201620172017
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Regular Season | USC | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2016 Postseason | USC | 3,336 | 65.8 | 13 | 3,336 |
| 2016 Regular Season | USC | 3,336 | 65.8 | 13 | 0 |
| 2017 Postseason | USC | 4,225 | 62.7 | 14.8 | 889 |
| 2017 Regular Season | USC | 4,225 | 62.7 | 14.8 | 0 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
@ Ohio State
Week 1 · L 7-24 · Postseason
Loss with 338 yards of offense and 53.7 efficiency.
338
Total Offense
69.8 takeover
338 total offense with 53.7 efficiency.
#2
@ Penn State
Week 1 · W 52-49 · Postseason
473
Total Offense
66.4 takeover
Win with 473 yards of offense and 66.5 efficiency.
473 total offense with 66.5 efficiency.
#3
vs Utah
Week 7 · W 28-27 · Conference game
373
Total Offense
65.7 takeover
Win with 373 yards of offense and 59.7 efficiency.
373 total offense with 59.7 efficiency.
#4
@ Utah
Week 4 · L 27-31 · Conference game
294
Total Offense
65.6 takeover
Loss with 294 yards of offense and 74 efficiency.
294 total offense with 74 efficiency.
#5
@ Colorado
Week 11 · W 38-24 · Conference game
360
Total Offense
65.6 takeover
Win with 360 yards of offense and 85.6 efficiency.
360 total offense with 85.6 efficiency.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2017 Postseason · USC
4,225 primary output · 62.7 efficiency · 14.8 usage
70.6
#2
2017 Regular Season · USC
70.6
4,225 primary · 62.7 efficiency · 14.8 usage
#3
2016 Postseason · USC
62.3
3,336 primary · 65.8 efficiency · 13 usage
Milestones
18
250+ passing yards
12
300+ total offense
11
3+ TD games
17
Above avg efficiency
Next best actions
Keep exploring Sam Darnold
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