Timing mattered in a big way for Seattle’s offense this offseason, and so far Sam Darnold’s start has come with both the upside and the risk the Seahawks signed up for.
John Schneider overhauled the quarterback room and the passing game in 2025, moving Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders, trading DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers and releasing Tyler Lockett. Then he landed Darnold, fresh off a career season with Kevin O’Connell and the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, after that club decided to pivot with first-round pick J.J.
McCarthy, who is now with the New York Giants. Darnold, the third overall pick in the 2018 draft by the New York Jets, joined his fifth NFL team on a three-year, $100.5 million deal.
The Seahawks saw the full range of Darnold’s game last season. He started all 17 regular-season games and all three of Seattle’s postseason contests, completing 67.7 percent of his passes for 4,048 yards, 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
He was sacked 27 times and added 95 rushing yards on 35 carries, but he also lost six of his 11 fumbles. That left him with 20 turnovers overall.
Seattle still won in January, and Darnold was steady enough to get the job done. Against the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots, he completed 61.5 percent of his throws for 672 yards with five touchdown passes and no interceptions. He didn’t lose his lone fumble, and Mike Macdonald’s team stayed turnover-free through all three games on the way to the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy.
This season, though, the ball security issues have shown up again.
Darnold lasted only one series in Wednesday night’s win over the Patriots. He took a sack in the first quarter, was injured in the glute and missed the rest of the game, along with the Week 2 matchup against the Cardinals.
He came back in Week 3 and lit up the stat sheet with 379 passing yards and four touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions. One of them was a 50-yard pick-six that swung a shocking 33-31 loss to the Commanders.
Then on Sunday, his first pass of the game was picked off by Chargers edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu. Darnold recovered well enough to finish with 168 yards and two touchdowns in Seattle’s 30-23 win.
Through nine quarters this season, the 29-year-old has thrown for 560 yards and six touchdowns with three interceptions. In 20 regular-season appearances for the Seahawks, he has now turned the ball over 23 times, with at least one turnover in 13 of those games.
The question now is whether the last two games are just a rough stretch, or if Darnold is slipping back into the same turnover habits that have followed him before.
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What stands out most is the bigger trend beneath the individual plays. Seattle has now scored at least 30 points in three straight games, something the franchise had not done since 2020, a stretch that says plenty about how much more consistent this team has looked on offense lately. The question now is whether the Seahawks can keep that level going once the schedule tightens and the margin for error gets smaller. [Read more 🡒]