The Seattle Seahawks left their opener with a win, but the bigger storyline came when Sam Darnold went down early and forced the entire sideline to hold its breath.
It happened on the fifth play of the season, when Darnold was sacked from behind by Dre’Mont Jones. The quarterback came off the field limping heavily, got checked in the medical tent, and then headed to the locker room. Not long after, he was ruled out, and Drew Lock took over.
For a moment, it looked like the kind of injury that could wreck a season before it really even starts. Instead, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald delivered an update that changed the mood around the team almost immediately.
Speaking during a halftime interview, he said, “We got to pick him up. We got faith in Drew [Lock] and he’s settled into the game now so we should be able to execute our game plan.”
After Seattle’s 13-10 win, Macdonald sounded far more relieved. “With Sam, we got some great news back.
Let’s just say it’s good news right now… Still, our thoughts and prayers are with Sam. We love him.”
He also addressed whether Darnold had escaped a season-ending structural injury, saying, “At this point, we were able to rule out a fracture. So, there’s some more tests to be done, so that’s what I’m saying, [that] it’s positive.”
Darnold is still set for an MRI on Thursday to check for tissue or ligament damage, and doctors still need to rule out serious ligament strains before he’s cleared for contact. But the early read is encouraging, and the timing helps Seattle. The Seahawks don’t play again until September 20th, giving Darnold and the team what amounts to a mini bye week.
In the meantime, Lock did exactly what Seattle needed in emergency duty. He entered with 7:29 left in the first quarter and later led a second late scoring drive that set up Jason Myers’ 26-yard field goal, the kick that sealed the 13-10 victory.
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The odd part is that the underlying shape of his at-bats has not changed all that much. Naylor is still making plenty of contact and keeping strikeouts low, but his aggressive style has led him into more pitches outside the zone, and the quality of the contact has suffered because of it. For Seattle, that creates a tricky offseason question: how much weight to give the steadiness of his approach versus the reality that the production hasnt matched it. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Raleigh's Surge May Not Be Enough To Avoid Mariners History
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Still, the bigger picture has not disappeared. Raleigh is sitting at .184 after 458 plate appearances, and the Mariners are staring at the possibility of one of the rarest kind of club history if that number holds. Evan White remains the only qualified Mariner to finish a season below .200, and Raleighs recent improvement may be enough to keep him from joining that particular list, but the margin is thin enough to keep the question alive. [Read more 🡒]