Drew Lock may get the start for the Seattle Seahawks in Week 9 against the Arizona Cardinals, but the idea that he could turn that into a longer-term job for Sam Darnold is built on shaky ground.
Lock is dealing with an elbow issue in his throwing arm, so there’s still a chance he won’t even be available. If he does play, though, the Seahawks are not about to treat a strong outing like a quarterback referendum. Darnold’s season has been rough, and his new quad injury could keep him out for a while, but Seattle isn’t going to erase what it knows about him because of a short stretch from Lock.
Even if Lock beats Arizona on Sunday and then somehow helps Seattle get past an improved Las Vegas Raiders team in Week 10, the picture still wouldn’t change much. By the Week 11 bye, that would leave Lock at 4-0, with most of the QB1 reps after stepping in on the first drive of Week 1 when Darnold hurt his glute. Darnold, meanwhile, would be sitting at 2-4.
But that version of events already gives Lock more credit than the actual results would. The Week 1 win came with a huge defensive effort against the New England Patriots, and Week 10 against Vegas would be impossible to know in advance.
Lock has done enough to keep the offense steady, but the Seahawks have seen something important from him: he has played mistake-free football and let the team win around him, instead of putting everything on his own shoulders. That’s what Darnold did a lot last season, and it hasn’t shown up this year.
Still, a move from Darnold to Lock would be a classic knee-jerk reaction, and that’s not how Seattle operates. The Seahawks want Lock to keep playing well for as long as he’s out there, but once Darnold is healthy, he’s QB1 again.
There are other reasons this won’t become a lasting switch. Lock is a strong teammate and a free agent next season, but his track record as a high-end starter is thin.
He hasn’t been a full-time starter since 2020, and inconsistency and turnover issues have been part of the story. His career interception percentage is 2.8, which is lower than Darnold’s, though that mostly reflects Darnold’s higher rate in his first four seasons.
Contractly, the gap is even clearer. Darnold is signed through 2027, while Lock could be looking for work elsewhere after this season. That matters here, too.
Seattle also shouldn’t be thinking about giving Lock an expensive extension next year. The money needs to go somewhere else, like an edge rusher, and Lock should be paid like someone who is not the long-term answer at quarterback.
General manager John Schneider isn’t going to make a bad financial call because of a few games, and head coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Brian Fleury aren’t going to pick a new starter on the same kind of short-term evidence. Fans may want that to happen, but it isn’t realistic. When Darnold is healthy, he starts.
For now, the bigger concern is whether Lock can even get through Week 9. Darnold is out, Lock is still limited in practice because of the elbow issue, and by the end of the Cardinals game, Jalen Milroe might be the quarterback.
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For Seattle, the appeal is obvious. The Seahawks could use another proven receiver to strengthen a group that already leans heavily on Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Aiyuk would be a rare chance to add help from an unlikely source. Nothing is settled yet, but if he does hit the market, it would not be surprising to see Seattle at least take a hard look. [Read more 🡒]