Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald had good and bad news on quarterback Sam Darnold on Wednesday.
Macdonald told reporters Darnold will not play Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. But, the head coach also said the team doesn’t plan to put the quarterback on injured reserve.
“Sam is going to be out this game. Drew is going to start for us,” Macdonald said. “Don’t anticipate putting [Darnold] on IR or anything like that. But we’ll just kind of re-evaluate every day and re-evaluate next week and go from there.
Players placed on injured reserve are required to miss at least four games. That indirectly means, the Seahawks see Darnold returning within four weeks or fewer.
Darnold left in the first quarter of the season opener last Wednesday. He didn’t return. Drew Lock replaced Darnold and led the Seahawks to a 13-10 victory.
Lock will make his first start of 2026 on Sunday versus the Cardinals.
Seahawks Don’t Plan to Place Sam Darnold on IR
Initial reports, particularly the ones during the game last week, indicated Darnold had a hip injury. But Henderson reported Monday that Darnold actually has a “very unique soft-tissue” injury that gives him a more favorable prognosis than originally expected.
In other words, it’s a short-term injury. While Darnold won’t play Sunday, Macdonald confirmed it should be “short-term” by saying Darnold won’t need an IR stint.
That’s arguably great news for the Seahawks. Lock proved in Week 1 that he can be a short-term stopgap behind center. Darnold will then be back before the middle of October.
The Seahawks are going to want him back as soon as possible. Including Week 1, which counted as another victory for Darnold, he is 29-6 as a starting quarterback since the start of the 2024 regular season. He is also 3-1 in the postseason.
Darnold completed 1 of 2 passes for 13 yards before exiting the season opener.
Seahawks QB Depth Without Darnold
Without Darnold, speculation has run wild that the Seahawks could acquire another quarterback in a trade. The Seahawks don’t have another signal-caller on the practice squad.
But Macdonald shot down that idea Wednesday.
“We’re going to roll with Drew and Jalen,” said the head coach.
Lock is 10-18 in his career as a starter. But a lot of those losses came in his first three seasons with the Denver Broncos when the organization was trying to develop him as a franchise quarterback.
Lock has grown into his role as a backup in Seattle. He completed 16 of 22 passes for 187 yards with a touchdown in relief of Darnold in Week 1. He didn’t turn the ball over and averaged 8.5 yards per attempt.
Honestly, Lock isn’t the concern. The issue with the Seahawks “rolling” with just Lock and Milroe is if Lock also suffers an injury.
Milroe has never even attempted a pass in the NFL. He’s received a lot of snaps in the preseason and produced mixed results. Milroe is obviously an athletic runner but remains a significant project as a passer.
But he has the advantage of having been with Seattle’s offense for more than a year. NFL teams often prefer that to external, last-minute options. The Seahawks won’t even pursue that as potential insurance, instead waiting for Darnold to return injury to have three quarterbacks again.
Seahawks Get Mixed Sam Darnold Injury Update Ahead of Cardinals Matchup