For half a century, the New York Jets have been on an exhaustive quest to find a franchise quarterback capable of guiding them to Super Bowl glory. Interestingly, they might have already had that leader in Sam Darnold.

Few saw Darnold as the solution when the Jets traded him away five years ago. Back then, the team failed to surround him with the kind of talent he’s currently thriving with on the Seattle Seahawks roster. Now, as the Seahawks prepare to take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California, on February 8, Darnold is proving his worth.

This remarkable turnaround prompts a crucial question: Why couldn’t Darnold succeed during his tenure with the Jets?

Reflecting on his journey, the 28-year-old quarterback shared, “There was a lot that I didn’t know back then, so I’m just going to continue to learn and grow in this great game.” His comments came after an impressive performance in the NFC Championship Game, where he threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns, leading his team to victory over the Los Angeles Rams.

But Darnold’s incredible comeback story begs this question: What went wrong during his time with the Jets?

“There was a lot that I didn’t know back then, so I’m just going to continue to learn and grow in this great game,” a reflective Darnold, 28, said after passing for 346 yards and three touchdowns in last Sunday’s NFC Championship Game victory over the Los Angeles Rams.

“We’re always looking to get better. I’m always looking to get better. That’s the great part about this game is you win an NFC championship and you win games throughout the season, but there’s always ways that you can look to get better.”

The square-jawed Darnold was squarely on the radar of Jets fans all the way back in 2017, when a large contingent advocated for the team to tank — or “Suck for Sam” — for a chance to draft the much-hyped quarterback out of USC.

And while the Jets weren’t bad enough that season to land the top overall pick — they finished 5-11 — general manager Mike Maccagnan managed to move up to No. 3 in the 2018 draft by sending the No. 6 pick and three second-rounders to the Indianapolis Colts.

When that trade went down in mid-March, most expected the Cleveland Browns to select Darnold at No. 1 in a loaded draft also featuring Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield.

But when the Browns drafted Mayfield and the Giants took running back Saquon Barkley at No. 2, Darnold fell in the Jets’ laps.

The expectations were immediate and immense, with Jets fans hailing Darnold the long-awaited savior that had eluded the franchise since Joe Namath was waived after the 1976 season.

Darnold’s Jets career got off to an inauspicious start when he threw a pick-six on his very first pass attempt, but he rebounded with two touchdowns to help rout the Detroit Lions, 48-17, in the 2018 season opener.

“You know what you’re getting out of that guy,” head coach Todd Bowles said of Darnold afterward. “You trust that type of person when you’re the same guy every day. That’s really been the most impressive thing.”

Darnold endured more growing pains during his rookie season but also showed flashes of excellence, including throwing three touchdown passes in a duel with Aaron Rodgers during an overtime loss to the Green Bay Packers.

In 13 starts in 2018, Darnold went 4-9 with 17 touchdown passes against 15 interceptions.

But the Jets’ 4-12 finish marked their third consecutive losing season, prompting owner Woody Johnson to fire Bowles.

The Jets hired Adam Gase — known then as a quarterback guru who received a recommendation from Peyton Manning — in January 2019 to replace Bowles.

But a power struggle developed between Gase and Maccagnan, and the Jets fired Maccagnan that May, after he had already led them through free agency (including signing Le’Veon Bell) and the draft. The Jets replaced Maccagnan with Joe Douglas, who previously worked with Gase in Chicago.

Despite the offseason drama, optimism remained high for how Darnold would develop under Gase.

But their initial season together was interrupted when Darnold caught mononucleosis, causing him to miss Weeks 2 through 5.

Darnold struggled to regain momentum once he returned. His second game back was a 33-0 drubbing by the Patriots on “Monday Night Football,” during which a mic’d-up Darnold infamously declared he was “seeing ghosts” during a four-interception performance.

For the second season in a row, Darnold demonstrated a propensity for highs and lows. He finished with 19 touchdown passes against 13 interceptions. The Jets went 7-6 in games started by Darnold, but after a 1-7 start, they finished 7-9 overall in 2019.

More alarmingly, the Jets finished last in total offense (273.0 yards per game) despite Gase’s expertise in that area.

Everything went off the rails in 2020. The Jets’ offense remained a mess, again finishing last in yardage (279.9 yards per game) and this time in scoring (15.2 points per game), too.

A discontent and underperforming Bell was released that October, just 17 games into the four-year, $52.5 million contract he signed with Maccagnan.

Darnold regressed in his third year, throwing for nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 12 starts.

“I came here to help him, help him develop his career, and we haven’t been able to do that,” Gase said late in that 2020 season.

“We need to do things well around him, but at the same time, it’s on me to get him to play better than what he’s played. I haven’t done a good enough job.”

The Jets started 0-13, then won back-to-back games under Darnold in Weeks 15 and 16, costing them the No. 1 pick — and a chance to draft Trevor Lawrence — and dropping them to No. 2.

Johnson fired Gase after finishing 2-14 and hired Robert Saleh to replace him.

Despite that disastrous season, debates raged about whether the Jets should stick with Darnold or draft BYU quarterback Zach Wilson with the No. 2 pick.

Darnold was 13-25 with 45 touchdown passes against 39 interceptions through three seasons, though he had never started alongside even one Pro Bowl player.

The Jets’ leading rushers over those three seasons were Isaiah Crowell (2018), Bell (2019) and a 37-year-old Frank Gore (2020), none of whom eclipsed 800 yards.

Their leading receivers were Robbie Anderson (2018) and Jamison Crowder (2019 and 2020), with the best of those seasons being Crowder’s 833-yard output in 2019.

Had they kept Darnold, the Jets could have drafted all-world LSU receiver Ja’Marr Chase at No. 2.

In that same draft, the San Francisco 49ers traded three first-round picks to move up and select quarterback Trey Lance at No. 3.

But the Jets decided to stake their future to Wilson, a polarizing prospect with obvious arm talent who had dominated a soft collegiate schedule that was weakened by COVID-related cancellations.

A few weeks before the 2021 draft, the Jets traded Darnold to the Carolina Panthers for three picks, including a 2022 second-rounder.

“I think it’s safe to say, if our pick were a little later, we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now. We’d fully be comfortable moving forward with Sam,” Douglas said at the time.

“This was an opportunity to hit the reset button financially.”

The Jets are not the only team to give up on Darnold. The Panthers did not re-sign Darnold after he went 8-9 with 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions in two seasons from 2021-22, opting instead to trade up and draft Bryce Young with the No. 1 pick in 2023.

Darnold then signed with the 49ers and, after beating out Lance for the No. 2 job, spent the 2023 season as Brock Purdy’s backup while learning in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s quarterback-friendly system.

From there, Darnold signed a one-year, $10 million contract with the Minnesota Vikings, who used a first-round pick on J.J. McCarthy less than two months later. But McCarthy suffered a preseason knee injury, costing him his rookie year and clearing the starting job for Darnold.

Darnold flourished under head coach Kevin O’Connell, throwing for a career-high 35 touchdown passes and leading Minnesota to a 14-3 record. But Darnold struggled in the Vikings’ final two games, including a 27-9 drubbing by the Rams in his playoff debut.

The Vikings moved forward with McCarthy last offseason, then missed the playoffs at 9-8 as McCarthy struggled — inviting second-guessing about their decision to not re-sign Darnold.

“There are those nights you wake up and stare at the ceiling and ask yourself,” Kwesi Adofo-Mensah admitted Thursday, a day before he was fired as the Vikings’ general manager.

“I always go back to the process and what we thought at the time. It’s easier to go and be revisionist and results-based, but going to think through what we had at the time, I still understand why we did what we did.”

The Vikings’ loss was the gain of the Seahawks, who signed Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million contract last spring.

Darnold (4,048 yards, 25 touchdowns) proved to be the missing piece on an offense headlined by star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, running back Kenneth Walker III and the veteran Cooper Kupp, complementing a defense that was the NFL’s stingiest in 2025.

Seattle went 14-3, earned the top seed in the NFC and, now, is one win away from a Super Bowl championship.

The exact thing the Jets have been chasing since 1969.

“He shut a lot of people up tonight,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said of Darnold after the NFC Championship Game. “I’m really happy for him.”