During the heat of the NFL season, as Jadarian Price already has learned in the early stages of his rookie season with the Seattle Seahawks, there isn’t much free time away from grinding on the practice field along with other work duties.

But while Price acknowledged that he hasn’t had much of a chance to check in on how his former Notre Dame teammates have done so far beginning their journeys in the league and has spent most of the little extra time he has resting and watching movies, he and top-five pick Jeremiyah Love have had a Week 2 date with the Cardinals in Glendale circled since the schedule first came out in May. After spending three seasons in a backfield timeshare as the primary backup behind Love in South Bend, the two first round picks will collide as starters for their new teams for the first time in a key early season NFC West battle on Sunday.

“That will be special,” Price said on Monday as Seattle began preparation for its divisional opener. “We even talked about it, how we want to maybe swap jerseys or something if we can. Cause it'll be a very special moment. I know a lot of Notre Dame fans, and Notre Dame people will look forward to that moment, so we’ll definitely get a picture."

Enjoying a weekend off after a season-opening 13-10 win over the New England Patriots, the Seattle Seahawks will return to work on Monday to begin gearing up for their NFC West opener on the road against the Arizona Cardinals, but they will likely do so with franchise quarterback Sam Darnold unavailable.

Per various reports, Darnold could miss anywhere from one game to upwards of six weeks with a glute injury, creating plenty of uncertainty about how long Seattle could be without him. In his place, Drew Lock looks poised to make his first start since 2024, when he started a handful of games for the New York Giants, while second-year dual-threat quarterback Jalen Milroe will serve as the primary backup.

If Darnold potentially could be a short-term injured reserve candidate, which would require him to miss a minimum of four games, the Seahawks will certainly need to be in the market for another quarterback to at minimum sign to the practice squad. But in September, finding a quality insurance option at the most important position in professional sports can be tricky, especially when whoever signs on will have to rapidly learn offensive coordinator Brian Fleury’s offense.

Looking at what may be available to the Seahawks, which quarterbacks should general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald consider bringing on board? Breaking potential candidates into three distinct groups, here are seven players who would make sense for the franchise based on experience, skill set, and upside among other factors:

Weird things tend to happen in bunches during the opening week of a new NFL season, and for the Seattle Seahawks and the rest of the NFC West, that certainly proved to be the case as three of the four teams within the division grabbed victories.

Moments after lowering their second-ever Super Bowl title banner at Lumen Field, the Seahawks watched star quarterback Sam Darnold hobble into the locker room after just six offensive plays, and they failed to score a single point in the first half as they fell behind 10-0 in the third quarter against the Patriots. Under such circumstances, most teams would have folded, but that wasn’t the case for coach Mike Macdonald’s championship-tested squad.

Led by Drew Lock under center and an opportunistic defense that picked up where it left off winning a Lombardi Trophy as the No. 1 scoring unit in the league last season, Seattle stormed back with 13 unanswered points. Playing with calm and poise running new coordinator Brian Fleury’s offense, Lock threw for 187 yards and completed 72% of his passes with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and no turnovers, while rookie runnng back Jadarian Price rushed for 52 yards on just 10 carries to lead the rushing attack.

Defensively, the trio of Nehemiah Pritchett, Julian Love, and Josh Jobe picked off MVP runner up Drake Maye three times in the fourth quarter, with Jobe’s icing the game inside 30 seconds left to play in the end zone as the Seahawks celebrated their comeback victory in front of a boisterous sellout crowd.

Everyone knows about No. 11 on the Seahawks. That being the reigning Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the one man the opponents can't let beat them, but still manages to do so most of the time anyway.

Smith-Njigba was once again the Seahawks’ biggest weapon in Week 1, and at this point, there’s nothing surprising about that. He finished the 13-10 win over New England with eight catches for 122 yards and a touchdown, including the spectacular 45-yard catch-and-run touchdown that tied the game in the fourth quarter. He was responsible for 69 of those yards in the final period alone.

The trouble was, Smith-Njigba was the only one that shined in the passing game. Offensive coordinator Brian Fleury and Lock didn't feature the supporting cast. Rashid Shaheed signed a three-year, $51 million contract to return to Seattle this offseason. The coaching staff envisioned him being a much bigger part of the passing game than he was last season after the trade from New Orleans. Instead, he amassed just 188 receiving yards in nine regular season games in Seattle.

One of the best all-around safeties in the league, Julian Love put his stamp on the Seattle Seahawks' thrilling comeback win over the New England Patriots to open the season in more ways than one, once again proving "The Mayor" swings a big stick in Mike Macdonald's secondary on the stat sheet and as a leader.

Emerald City Spectrum reporter Corbin Smith breaks down Love’s outstanding performance, including a big hit to open the second half that seemed to re-awaken a dormant Lumen Field crowd, and how his presence helped bring out the best in a secondary missing several injured players.

Despite losing starting quarterback Sam Darnold just six snaps into Wednesday’s opener and falling behind 10-0 in the third quarter, led by Drew Lock and an opportunistic defense, the resilient Seattle Seahawks stormed back in front of the boisterous 12s for a thrilling 13-10 victory over the New England Patriots.

Diving into the All-22 film and digging deeper into Seattle’s hard-fought comeback win to kick off the new season, who stood out in the much-anticipated Super Bowl LX rematch? Here are my top five performers from the Seahawks’ three-point victory over Drake Maye and the Patriots at Lumen Field:

Julian Love

Overall Grade: 91.0 (Run Defense 94, Coverage 92, Tackling 87)

Preaching to his teammates to have “violence in their hearts” during warmups, “The Mayor” took those words literally to heart from the opening kickoff to the final whistle. Reading New England’s blocking schemes like a book, he rocketed into the backfield for a pair of tackles for loss on running back Rhamondre Stevenson, including a crucial 3rd and 1 stop in the first quarter that forced the visitors to punt the ball away after he blew up the back on a B-gap blitz. Even when receivers made catches in his vicinity, he rattled the bones of Drake Maye’s targets, including demolishing Hunter Henry on a 13-yard reception to open the third quarter with a jarring hit that woke the 12s up from their post-Sam Darnold injury slumber.

Once the preseason comes to a close and the calendar flips to September, Drew Lock knows all too well the reality of being an NFL backup quarterback. After months of receiving ample snaps rotating behind Sam Darnold, with the start of regular season games, those opportunities dry up to next to nothing with the starter getting the lion’s share of snaps for the Seattle Seahawks.

Relegated to scout team duty or watching from the sideline, staying prepared for the possibility of having to actually play on game day can be incredibly tricky. There’s no such thing as being able to replace or replicate live reps on the field, but yet, that’s exactly what backups such as Lock have to try to accomplish with limited practice time being fully dedicated to the starters. There’s no proven, scientific formula to do so, with each backup having his own routine during a game week to remain ready if his number is called.

But now in his eighth season, after leading the Seahawks to a thrilling 13-10 comeback win over the Patriots replacing an injured Darnold in the first quarter on Wednesday night, Lock seems to have found the right recipe in Seattle. His secret? Well, it starts and ends in the bedroom - with a dry erase marker and a whiteboard - for the player defensive tackle Jarran Reed calls “Mr. Clutch.”

“I've got one next to my bed. I'll do it at night and I'll do it in the morning,” Lock explained to reporters after the game. “That's just been my thing, being able to visualize it so when I read it out it's just there in my head. Because of the lack of reps you don't get to physically do it. I got to be able to draw it from somewhere, no pun intended, and drawing it helps me draw it from somewhere.”

SEATTLE, Wash. - Overcoming an early injury that knocked Sam Darnold out of action, the Seattle Seahawks roared back from a 10-point second half deficit to open the 2026 season with a 13-10 win over the New England Patriots.

Filling in admirably for Darnold, Drew Lock outplayed Drake Maye, completing 16 out of 22 passes for 187 yards and a 45-yard touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who finished with 122 receiving yards to kick off the new year. The trio of Julian Love, Nehemiah Pritchett, and Josh Jobe recorded fourth quarter interceptions, with the latter picking off Maye in the end zone to ice the game inside 30 seconds to play.

Diving into a wild, adversity-filled opener, here are five takeaways from a big-time win in a Super Bowl LX rematch at Lumen Field:

1. Despite Darnold scare and a slow start for the backup, Lock comes up clutch again in relief.

On the path to a Lombardi Trophy a year ago, Seattle had relatively positive fortunes on the injury front. But only a few minutes into Wednesday’s opener, that luck got twisted upside down in a heartbeat, sending a frenzied crowd into a silenced panic. Sacked by Dre’Mont Jones on third down to end the opening series, Darnold gingerly jogged off, trying to shake off the discomfort as he headed to the sideline. Only a few minutes later, he spent a brief spell in the blue injury tent before hobbling to the locker room, sending Lock in for sub duty.

Bringing a worst case scenario to life for the Seattle Seahawks as they begin their Super Bowl title defense, Sam Darnold exited the field after just one series in Wednesday’s season opener against the New England Patriots with a hip injury.

Replacing Darnold just one drive into the opener, Drew Lock took over at the 7:29 mark after the Seahawks’ defense forced a punt on their opening series.

After his first pass went for 13 yards to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Darnold uncorked an ugly incompletion and then found himself under duress on the ensuing third down. He managed to escape the initial blitzer with his eyes still scanning downfield, but as he tried to move to his left, he was dragged down by veteran defensive end Dre’Mont Jones for a drive-ending sack.