The moment came as a shock to the entire football world — just 5 plays into the 2026 regular season, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold went down with a hip injury on a sack by New England Patriots edge rusher and former Dre’Mont Jones.
In place of Darnold, who quarterbacked the Seahawks to a win over the Patriots, came former Broncos quarterback Drew Lock, who was part of the infamous trade that brought Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson to the Broncos before the 2022 season,
In an interesting twist, both Jones and Lock were part of Denver’s 2019 draft class and teammates for 3 seasons before the trade, then again for 1 season on the Seahawks in 2023 after Jones signed there in free agency.
“Drew Lock coming in for injured Sam Darnold,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his official X account on Wednesday night.
Darnold was almost immediately designated as questionable to return.
Lock left the Seahawks for 1 season with the New York Giants in 2024, then returned to Seattle in 2025 to serve as Darnold’s backup on the way to winning the Super Bowl.
Drew Lock Candid About Trade to Seahawks
Four years after the trade, both the Broncos and Lock are in completely different places. The Broncos have made the playoffs 2 consecutive seasons, including a No. 1 seed in the AFC Playoffs and a spot in the AFC Championship Game.
Lock went 4-1 as the starter during his rookie season, but went 4-9 and led the NFL with 15 interceptions in his lone season as the full-time starter in 2020.
Lock was beaten out for the starting role by Teddy Bridgewater on the Broncos in 2021 — a season Lock still went 0-3 in fill-in action.
“Four years after the Broncos tossed in the towel on a former second-round pick, four years after they shipped Lock off to Seattle in the Russell Wilson blockbuster, Lock has stuck it out long enough to experience his own kind of renewal,” The Denver Post’s Luca Evans wrote before the Super Bowl. “He has thrown all of three passes in 2025 behind Darnold, the 2018 No. 3 pick who’s revitalized his career the past two seasons. But during Seattle’s run to a Super Bowl berth, a funny thing’s happened: pushing a reclamation project in Darnold has given Lock the confidence he can be reclaimed, too.”
Lock Got Massively Screwed Over by Giants
Lock spent 2 seasons as Geno Smith’s backup on the Seahawks before playing 1 season for the Giants in 2024, where by all rights he should have been the starter after Daniel Jones was released, but the Giants were more interested in tanking.
That was apparent when they decided to start third-stringer Tommy DeVito over Lock.
Lock couldn’t hide his confusion after getting passed over for DeVito but still managed to handle the situation with class.
“That’s a question that I might still have for myself,” Lock told the media after he was passed over to start. “It was expressed to me that I was going to be QB2. Interesting situation. Not much I can really say about it besides, again, I’m going to be here for him and we’re still communicating and still very good friends, believe it or not. I’m going to be here for him, the team needs to get a win and if we start winning everything will get a little better around here.”
Faced with free agency again, Lock made the move to come back to Seattle and back up Darnold — a decision that made him a world champion.
Ex-Broncos Starting QB Takes Over for Seahawks After Sam Darnold Injury