The Seattle Seahawks, for now, will stick with their Super Bowl winning quarterback amid ongoing struggles with turnovers and accuracy.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald told Seattle Sports 710 and later reporters on Friday that there won’t be a pivot to Drew Lock, who started and performed well against the Arizona Cardinals and otherwise doesn’t have any turnovers through (essentially) two games played.
“We have a great backup quarterback in Drew,” Macdonald told Seattle Sports. “Drew is a tremendous quarterback. He’s a starting-level quarterback, and [I understand] that we didn’t turn the ball over when Drew played, and then we’ve had takeaway issues [with Sam starting].
“But right now, I think these things we have to attack as if they’re in our control, and then we can move it forward. Sam’s played great football for us this year the majority of the time, and there’s other times where, and he’ll be the first to tell you, he needs to take care of the football.”
Darnold acknowledged on Thursday night following his catastrophic two-interception showing against the Denver Broncos that the turnovers, of which he has a league-leading seven picks, are hurting the team.
“I just think it’s ‘BS,’ you know, for me to keep turning the ball over,” Darnold said. “It’s not fair to our defense, not fair to our special teams’ group, not fair really to the entire team. So I have to be better that way.”
“We have a lot of faith in Sam,” Macdonald said at his press conference. “Sam has played great football for us. He’s done a lot of great things this year. He’s obviously turned the ball over more than we want to. There are things on our end that can help him play better football and he’s part of the solution rather than the opposite.”
It’s not surprising that Macdonald didn’t get off the plane and immediately declare Drew Lock the starter. We’ve sort of been here with Mike when Geno Smith had his turnover issues in the 2024 season, namely against the Los Angeles Rams in a 26-20 overtime loss. He never benched Geno for Sam Howell, and now we’ve got another conversation brewing with Darnold and Drew Lock.
If Darnold continues to struggle against the Kansas City Chiefs, a QB change really should not be out of the question. It’s less of, “Is Drew Lock suddenly a franchise quarterback?” and more of, “Is Drew Lock going to be less of a liability than Sam Darnold?” at this point in what is on course to be a very disappointing season.
A highly anticipated Sunday night showdown with Kansas City, in part because of Ken Walker’s return to Seattle, now has an even bigger storyline to watch.