Skol! Can the reimagining of Sam Darnold live on?

It's 2027. The Seattle Seahawks are 12-2 with a chance over the final three weeks of the NFL season to lock up a division title and possibly even earn the top playoff seed and a first-round bye.

Their quarterback is Zach Wilson.

I know, I know: This is crazy talk. Sheer lunacy. You figure I must have just been on one of those retreats with Aaron Rodgers, ingesting lord knows what and emerging from the darkness spouting straight nonsense.

Zach Wilson? A bust. Three disastrous years with the New York Jets, who were so desperate to move on from the second overall pick in the 2021 draft that they threw themselves at a creaky Rodgers and signed all his friends. In what world would Wilson, now a backup with the Denver Broncos, possibly rebound to lead an NFC contender?

The same world that contains Sam Darnold.

Darnold was, of course, the third overall pick by the New York Jets in 2018. He also had three mostly terrible years in New York and was unsuccessful enough in that third season (2-10 as a starter) that the Jets were ready to cut him loose and use a premium first-round pick on another passer (in this case Wilson). From there, Darnold had a couple of forgettable seasons in Carolina, was a backup in San Francisco last year, and signed in Minnesota this year, where he was supposed to be the caddie for incoming rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

But Darnold was thrown into the starting role after McCarthy was hurt in preseason, and suddenly Darnold's Joe Montana. Or, at least Kirk Cousins (the pre-Achilles injury version).

It's a hilarious arc, and honestly not much weirder than imagining Wilson suddenly reborn as a more than competent starter three seasons from now.

Darnold this season is fifth in the league in touchdown passes (29), fourth in passer rating (104.9), and seventh in passing yards per game (252). And the Vikings are 12-2 with him at the helm.

Rarely has there been a case of a QB changing his reputation so quickly, having been put in a passer-friendly system with a good coach, with the possible exception of Jared Goff in Detroit.

All of which makes what happens next for Darnold, in the short and long term, so intriguing. Over the next few weeks, he'll lead the Vikings into the playoffs, which is generally where a guy with his history in the position turns back into a pumpkin. And there's plenty of history: Over his six previous seasons and 56 starts, Darnold had 12 games with a passer rating of more than 100. In 14 starts with Minnesota, he has 11 such games.

He's also been middle of the pack among this year's starters in more advanced stats like QBR and success rate, suggesting he gets considerable benefit from head coach Kevin O'Connell's offensive system and the presence of weapons like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and Aaron Jones.

Could a guy like that succeed on a talented, well-coached team in the playoffs? Yes. Could he suddenly revert to Jets Darnold and start sailing passes all over the place when he isn't taking sacks? Also yes. The playoffs can be funny that way.

All of which makes his future hard to predict. In a league with as many as 10 teams looking to upgrade at QB in 2025, will Darnold find that some other franchise will offer him the starter role (and salary) the Vikings won't because they already have capital invested in McCarthy?

Perhaps more to the point: Will some team give him a monster contract and then realize after the fact they got Darnold version 1.0?

That isn't intended to be a knock on the player. If this season has proven anything, even QBs who were formerly meme factories can be successful in the right situation. It's just that if Darnold were suddenly, say, playing for the Raiders, with the same coaching staff and the same (lack of) offensive weapons as presently exist in Las Vegas, it's hard to imagine he'd be enjoying the same kind of mid-career renaissance.

As it happens, the guy who was drafted two spots ahead of Darnold in 2018 is doing the same kind of thing elsewhere in the NFC. Baker Mayfield was better with Cleveland than Darnold ever was in New York, but he's on his fourth team now, too, and like Darnold is posting career-best numbers in Tampa Bay. Unlike Darnold, Mayfield is two seasons into his renaissance, proof that the rebirth of a former draft bust doesn't have to be fleeting. Quarterbacks don't get drafted that high unless they have some pretty good tools. They just need to end up with a team that can figure out how to use them.

That's obviously good news for Darnold. And it's good news for someone like Zach Wilson, too.

Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.