With Sam Darnold out because of a glute injury, the Seattle Seahawks don’t expect all that much to change now that Drew Lock is taking over.
Lock will start at quarterback Sunday for the Super Bowl champions at Arizona, with Jalen Milroe in the backup role.
“Drew’s a proven really good player in this league, and when he’s started, he’s played really good football, and then when he’s been on our team since I’ve seen him play in person, he’s a heck of a player here,” coach Mike Macdonald said Wednesday. “So he’s a heck of a guy, heck of a teammate. He’s got a great balance about him of being like a true professional, but also he’s a loose and focused guy.”
The Seahawks announced this week that Darnold has a “very unique, soft tissue” glute injury. Although the injury is believed to be short-term, there is no timetable for his return. Darnold was not placed on injured reserve.
Darnold was injured when he was sacked by Dre’Mont Jones on Seattle’s first series against the New England Patriots last week. Lock replaced him and went 16 of 22 for 187 yards and a touchdown as the Seahawks rallied for a 13-10 victory.
“I mean, even outside of our mentality of bend-don’t-break and supporting the next guy up, I think we all have faith in Drew because we believe that he’s the best second-string quarterback in the league,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said.
Darnold did not miss a game last season as he led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title. He threw for 4,048 yards with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions as Seattle won a franchise-record 14 games.
“He’s killing on his rehab. He’s doing a great job,” Macdonald said. “He’s doing a lot right now. He’s just, he’s not going to be able to play this week.”
Lock has mostly been a backup since 2021. The game against the Patriots marked his first meaningful playing time since 2024 - he appeared only in mop-up duty last season, completing two passes for 15 yards in five games.
“The quarterbacks here have done an unbelievable job in terms of, like, there’s not a whole lot of conversations that happen with Sam that Drew’s not right there having that same conversation,” receiver Cooper Kupp said. “I mean those guys work so well together. So just like Drew’s always been in Sam’s back pocket, in terms of bouncing things off of each other and collaborating together, Sam’s gonna be that same exact thing for Drew.”
Lock is in his second stint with the Seahawks. He was with Seattle from 2022-23, after coming over in the trade that sent Russell Wilson to Denver, and started a pair of games in 2023 when Geno Smith had a groin injury. He spent the 2024 season with the New York Giants before returning to Seattle last year.
“He has a little bit of a swagger to him, he’s confident. I think he’s ready for the moment,” Williams said. “When It’s time for him to be called up, there’s no lag, there’s no hesitation. He’s ready for it. And it’s cool to see because I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in that position as a backup quarterback, where you may not see the field all season, but at any moment you have to be ready to go in there and operate and lead the offense. And I think he does a great job at that, not skipping a beat.”
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