Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold climbed from No. 72 to No. 21 in the player-voted NFL Top 100 after winning Super Bowl LX. (Image via Getty)Sam Darnold spent years trying to outrun one label after another. NFL players have now placed him ahead of Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Dak Prescott.The NFL revealed Darnold at No. 21 on its 2026 NFL Top 100 list, a 51-place jump from his No. 72 debut last year. The annual ranking is voted on by NFL players, making the company Darnold now keeps one of the more striking results of this year's list.Why did NFL players rank Sam Darnold above Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow?The names below Darnold make No. 21 difficult to ignore.Jackson, a two-time NFL MVP, landed at No. 69. Burrow came in at No. 44, Herbert at No. 39 and Prescott at No. 31. Darnold entered the top 25 after finishing his first season with the Seattle Seahawks as a Super Bowl champion.His regular-season numbers provided a strong case. Darnold completed 67.7% of his passes for 4,048 yards and 25 touchdowns as Seattle went 14-3 and secured the NFC's No. 1 seed. He made the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive season.There was still one familiar problem. Darnold threw 14 interceptions and remained vulnerable when pressure forced him into mistakes. NFL Pro data cited by the league showed that he committed a turnover on 7.2% of his pressured dropbacks, the highest rate in the NFL.That makes his postseason especially important to understanding the ranking.Darnold threw for 672 yards and five touchdowns across three playoff victories without committing a turnover. His postseason passer rating was 102.5, and Seattle became the first Super Bowl champion to finish an entire postseason without turning the ball over.His biggest test came before the Super Bowl. Darnold threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns in Seattle's 31-27 NFC Championship Game win over the Los Angeles Rams, answering one of the questions that had followed him from Minnesota.Seattle coach Mike Macdonald summed up the reaction afterward.“You can't talk about the game without talking about our quarterback,” Macdonald said. “He just shut a lot of people up tonight. Really happy for him.”That performance gave Darnold something his 2024 breakout with the Minnesota Vikings could not: a postseason result that matched the regular-season production.Has Sam Darnold finally killed the biggest criticism of his NFL career?Darnold's rise did not begin in Seattle. He threw for 4,319 yards and 35 touchdowns while winning 14 games with Minnesota in 2024, earning his first Pro Bowl selection. His final two games changed the conversation.Minnesota lost to the Detroit Lions in Week 18 with the NFC North title and No. 1 seed at stake. The Vikings then lost their wild-card game against the Rams, with Darnold taking nine sacks. Seattle still signed him to a three-year, $100.5 million contract after trading Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders.One year later, the gamble looks very different.Darnold led another team to 14 wins, won the NFC West, reached another Pro Bowl and then delivered three turnover-free postseason victories. The last of those ended with Seattle beating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX.Macdonald addressed the years of discussion around his quarterback after the title.“Sam doesn't care about the obstacles,” Macdonald said. “Everyone's made a narrative of this guy, they have tried to put a story and a label on who he is as a person and who he is as a quarterback.”Darnold appears less interested in closing the argument himself.“I think I can always get better,” Darnold said early in training camp.He specifically pointed to his footwork, progression speed and throws he wanted back from the Super Bowl. That matters heading into 2026 because No. 21 does not erase the interceptions from last season. It shows how much weight his peers gave everything that followed them.Darnold entered 2025 needing to prove his Minnesota season could travel with him to another offense. He left it holding a Lombardi Trophy.Now, the players who face him have delivered their own verdict: No. 21 in the NFL.