RENTON, Wash. -- Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold will be playing for yet another new offensive coordinator in 2026 after Seattle hired Brian Fleury to replace Klint Kubiak. But the new playcaller isn't installing an entirely new playbook, and Darnold is happy about not having to start from scratch.
"Thankfully it hasn't been too much of a transition," Darnold said Wednesday following an OTA practice while speaking to local reporters for the first time since Seattle won Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8.
Under Fleury, who spent the past seven seasons as an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers, the Seahawks will run a version of coach Kyle Shanahan's offense. It'll be similar to what they ran last year under Kubiak, another Shanahan disciple.
"It's a lot of the same stuff [with] Fleury obviously coming from San Francisco, but a couple different wrinkles here and there," Darnold said. "So it's been good that way to be able to get some of that same verbiage but just a couple different wrinkles."
Not since his New York Jets days has Darnold played for the same coordinator in consecutive years, but even that comes with a caveat. Head coach Adam Gase called the plays in 2019 -- the quarterback's second NFL season -- then relinquished those duties to OC Dowell Loggains in October 2020.
With the Carolina Panthers, Darnold's coordinators were Joe Brady and Jeff Nixon in 2021 and Ben McAdoo in 2022. Darnold backed up Brock Purdy with the 49ers in 2023 before his Pro Bowl breakthrough in 2024 with the Minnesota Vikings under head coach Kevin O'Connell and OC Wes Phillips.
Darnold made his second straight Pro Bowl with the Seahawks last season under Kubiak, who was hired as the Las Vegas Raiders' head coach a day after the Super Bowl.