Sam Darnold ‘Killing It’ in Rehab, Confirmed Out for Seahawks at Cardinals in Week 2

RENTON, Wash. - From a long-term prognosis standpoint, Sam Darnold appears to be on a trajectory to return in the not-so-distant future for the Seattle Seahawks. But that future won’t be as early as this upcoming weekend.

Rather than dance around the possibility of Darnold potentially being available to play in Arizona against the Cardinals on Sunday, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald confirmed the Pro Bowl quarterback would sit out this week, yielding the controls to the offense to backup Drew Lock. Fortunately, injured reserve isn’t on the table at the moment, and the organization will revisit his status next week.

“We don’t anticipate putting him on I.R. or anything like that,” Macdonald told reporters. “We’ll just kinda re-evaluate every day and re-evaluate next week. We’ll go from there, but he won’t play this week.”

Knocked out just six plays into Seattle’s season opener, Darnold’s right knee rammed into the turf when New England defensive end Dre’Mont Jones brought him down from behind for a drive-ending third down sack. He hobbled off the field and after trying to shake off the discomfort, he spent a brief moment in the injury tent before limping alongside trainers into the locker room, ruled out late in the second quarter due to a hip injury with Lock playing the remainder of the game.

The Seahawks wound up pulling off a thrilling 13-10 comeback, backed by Lock’s 45-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and three fourth quarter interceptions against Drake Maye, helping erase a 10-point deficit. In the days since the victory at Lumen Field, the team has updated Darnold’s diagnosis to a “unique” glute injury, as he avoided a fractured hip or labrum damage with the hip joint intact, and indicated through a team spokesperson that it was not viewed as a long-term injury.

On Wednesday, Darnold could be seen at the facility, with Macdonald saying Seattle’s starter has been “killing it” with his rehab process thus far, which certainly is an encouraging development. He just wasn’t going to be able to make enough progress quickly enough to have a shot at playing this week, making it the right move to name Lock as the starter at the beginning of the week.

"He's doing a lot,” Macdonald said. “He’s just not going to be able to play this weekend.”

Seattle hasn’t disclosed a specific timeline for Darnold to return to action, and for now, he will at minimum miss Sunday’s NFC West opener at State Farm Stadium, thrusting Lock into the starting lineup for the first time since he played for the New York Giants in 2024. Second-year quarterback Jalen Milroe will serve as his backup, with Macdonald confirming the team didn’t plan to add a third quarterback to the active roster or practice squad at this time.

Unlike last week where Lock was thrown into action without receiving many practice reps during the week leading up to the opener, the veteran gunslinger will receive most of the first-team reps this week. But Macdonald did acknowledge Milroe, who has only played a couple of regular season snaps as a wildcat quarterback, would see a bit of action with the starters this week as well to make sure that if Lock got banged up and he was called upon, he would be as prepared as possible to enter the huddle.

“I’m sure we’ll tweak some part of the process,” Macdonald said. “In terms of numbers, I don’t know. Jalen’s not going to get no reps. Let’s put it that way.”

In regard to Lock, Macdonald has the utmost confidence in the former second round pick out of Missouri picking up where he left off last week and continuing to play stellar football under center for the Seahawks. Prior to completing 72% of his passes with a touchdown and no turnovers against the Patriots, he led the team to a massive Monday night win over the Eagles in place of Geno Smith in 2023, proving on multiple occasions that he can deliver the goods when called upon.

With the benefit of getting most of the reps this week, Lock should enter Sunday feeling much more comfortable with a true game plan working in tandem with offensive coordinator Brian Fleury, and it’s possible he could have his full arsenal of receivers at his disposal as well with receiver Tory Horton trending in the right direction to make his season debut alongside Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and Rashid Shaheed.

“Drew's a proven, really good player in this league, and when he’s started, he's played really good football,” Macdonald commented. “When he's been on our team since I've seen him play in person, he's a heck of a player here. So it's heck of a guy, heck of a teammate. He's got a great balance about him of being a being like a true professional, but also, he's a loose and focused guy. He's a warrior in the garden. He's all the things that we want from our from our players. He's that at the quarterback position.”

In additional injury news, Macdonald indicated safety Nick Emmanwori would practice on Wednesday, though it remains to be seen whether in limited or full participation. The second-year defender did not play against the Patriots after undergoing ankle surgery in July prior to the start of training camp and the Seahawks will be holding out hope that the Defensive Rookie of the Year runner up will take the steps necessary on the practice field to make his season debut in Arizona.

Away from Emmanwori, linebacker Ernest Jones missed Monday’s practice due to an illness, but he will be in good shape for the rest of the week leading up to Sunday’s contest. Safety Ty Okada, who sat out the opener with a hamstring injury, has a “chance” to play this weekend, per Macdonald, without providing an update on whether he would practice on Wednesday or not.