No Sam Darnold? No problem for the Seahawks’ passing game, as long as Jaxon Smith-Njigba is around.
With backup Drew Lock at quarterback, Smith-Njigba had a sensational day today, catching nine passes for 155 yards and three touchdowns, as Seattle cruised in Arizona, winning 31-7.
How important was Smith-Njigba to the Seahawks’ offense? When Lock was throwing to him, he completed 9-of-11 passes for 155 yards, with three touchdowns. When Lock was throwing to anyone else on the Seahawks, he was 10-for-15 for 80 yards and no touchdowns.
Emanuel Wilson led the Seahawks in rushing, with 20 carries for 92 yards. Jadarian Price chipped in 13 carries for 52 yards.
The Cardinals were competitive in the first half, but the Seahawks dominated in the second, and by the fourth quarter it was a blowout.
The defending champion Seahawks are now 2-0, and they have every reason to feel confident they can win it all again this season. The Cardinals fall to 1-1, and despite a promising start last week, Arizona does not look like it can compete in the NFC West.
Cardinals Clips
Last Sunday, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported that the Seahawks were seeking up to four second opinions regarding quarterback Sam Darnold’s injured glute tendon.
Those second opinions came back better than expected.
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reports that the various medical opinions were encouraging, and that Darnold is expected to return sooner than the Seahawks had initially believed. Darnold is not as injured as the Seahawks had initially feared.
Last Sunday, it was believed he could miss 4-6 weeks. Now, he possibly will return for Week 3 at Washington and, if not then, Week 4 vs. the Chargers.
For today at least, it’s Drew Lock time in Arizona, as the Seahawks try to extend their winning streak over the Cardinals to ten, and a franchise-record overall winning streak to twelve.
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold left the Week 1 game against the Patriots after five snaps, with a hip injury becoming a glute tendon injury for which the team reportedly sought multiple second opinions.
Amid initial concerns that Darnold could miss 4-6 weeks, he could be back three weeks after the injury happened.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that Darnold is “recovering faster than anyone had anticipated,” and that he could return to practice “in some form or fashion” this week. That doesn’t mean he’ll be ready to go against the Commanders in Week 3. He could be back in Week 4 vs. the Chargers.
A significant game is looming in Week 5. That’s when the 49ers, who beat the Seahawks in Seattle last season, return to town for what will be a potentially massive NFC West showdown.
Today against the Cardinals, it’s Drew Lock. The Seahawks have beaten Arizona nine straight times, tying the longest active streak by any franchise against another team. Via NBC Sports research, the Chiefs have also beaten the Commanders nine straight times.
More importantly, the Seahawks have now won 11 in a row. That equals the longest streak in franchise history. Which means, obviously, that a win today would give Seattle its first-ever 12-game win streak.
The Seahawks ruled quarterback Sam Darnold out for Week 2 a couple of days ago, but his health was still a topic for head coach Mike Macdonald during Friday’s press conference.
Darnold has not practiced since injuring his glute in the team’s season-opening win over the Patriots and Macdonald didn’t provide much sense about when that would change.
“He’s on his way back,” Macdonald said. “Is it next week? Is it the week after, the week after that? I’m not sure. I’m optimistic, put it that way.”
Drew Lock will start against the Cardinals with Jalen Milroe serving as their backup.
Safety Ty Okada (hamstring) will also mean the game. Safety Nick Emmanwori (hip, ankle) and guard Anthony Bradford (knee, hip) are both listed as questionable.
Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love and Seahawks running back Jadarian Price were teammates at Notre Dame before they were first-round draft picks for division rivals this year. Love says the Cardinals’ defense has asked him about Price, and he’ll help the Cardinals’ defense prepare for Price in any way he can before their teams meet on Sunday.
“They’ve been asking me stuff like, What are some of his weaknesses? Stuff like that,” Love said. “J doesn’t have many weaknesses. If you can get him you got to get him. Once he gets the ball, he gets rolling. It’s hard to stop him. He’s real fast. . . . You’ve got to get him early. I think very highly of JD, so I don’t really know what to say. Got to get him. Get him before he gets rolling.”
Love said he considers Price like a brother, but that doesn’t mean he’s rooting for Price on Sunday.
“It will be a little different,” Love said. “I played with JD for three years at Notre Dame. He was my teammate. He’s not going to be my teammate this upcoming game. He’s still my brother at the end of the day, but we’re preparing to go to war, so it’s going to be him against my D and my offense against his D. I’m excited to see him. I haven’t talked to him in a minute. It will be good to compete against him and then after the game, talk to him and see how he’s doing.”
Asked whether his loyalties are with his friend or his team, Love answered, “My team.”
“This is the place where I’m at, these are the people I’m with right now, that I’ve been building bonds with,” Love said. “Me and JD have a bond off the field. Not on the field because we’re playing against each other. I would take my team over JD because it’s my team. I’m with the Cardinals, he’s with the Seahawks.”
In his Week 1 debut, running back Jadarian Price was on the field for only 24 snaps — less than half of the Seahawks’ total offensive workload.
That will be changing.
Offensive coordinator Brian Fleury told reporters on Thursday that Price will be getting more playing time moving forward.
“We were very deliberate about the reps that he was going to get, and how he was going to be used,” Fleury said. “He didn’t play in the preseason. It was the very first NFL game, huge stage. We wanted to be cautious in terms of his workload. He earned more reps moving forward, and we’ll continue to bring him along and develop him the right way.”
Fleury explained that the limited use of Price had nothing to do with “anything physical.” Said Fleury, “It’s just being a rookie.”
With Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III gone in free agency and Zach Charbonnet out for at least the first four games as he continues to recover from an ACL tear suffered in the divisional-round win over the 49ers, Price is the top tailback.
With his 24 reps in the season opener, Price had 10 carries for 52 yards and two catches for six yards. The next opportunity comes in Arizona on Sunday, against the 1-0 Cardinals.
Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. caught only one pass in his team’s win over the Chargers on Sunday, which Harrison says was a result of Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh focusing the defense on shutting him down.
Harrison played three years at Ohio State when Harbaugh was Michigan’s head coach, and Harrison said Harbaugh game plans for him.
“I’m familiar with Harbaugh, going up against the team up north for many years, and how they played me a lot of the time, and they still hjave the same respect for me,” Harrison said. “So I had a feeling going into the game that I wasn’t going to see many one-high looks.”
Harrison’s one catch was for 33 yards, and he said that was one of the few plays when the Chargers’ coverage wasn’t designed to shut him down.
“We threw the go ball and completed that one,” Harrison said. “We’re not going to get many opportunities, but when we did we capitalized on the way we had. It’s a part of the game, everybody’s going to have their weeks, have their days, but at the end of the day the team won, and all you can do is your part.”
Harrison is in his third season and so far hasn’t developed into the All-Pro receiver he was expected to be when he was starring at Ohio State. At some point, he needs to find a way to make more plays, no matter what the defense is doing.
The Seahawks will ride with quarterback Drew Lock until Sam Darnold returns from a glute injury. And Lock’s teammates have no problem with that.
"[W]e all have faith in Drew,” defensive lineman Leonard Williams told reporters on Wednesday. “We believe that he’s the best second-string quarterback in the league. Since I’ve been here, before he went to the Giants, he stepped up big time. I remember that Eagles game a few years back where he stepped up and won us the game. He’s done it and shown it multiple times now. That has instilled a lot of trust in his teammates and his team.”
After three years with the Broncos, Lock spent two in Seattle. He signed with the Giants for 2024 before returning to the Seahawks in 2025.
And Lock did indeed have a special night against the Eagles in December 2023. Starting in place of Geno Smith, Lock threw a touchdown pass to receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba with 28 seconds to play for a 20-17 win over Philly.
“He has a little bit of swagger to him,” Williams said regarding Lock. “He’s confident, he’s ready for the moment. When it’s time for him to be called up, there’s no lag, there’s no hesitation. He’s ready for it. It’s cool to see because I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in that position as a backup quarterback. You may not see the field all season but at any moment you have to be ready to go in there and operate and lead the offense. He does a great job of that, not skipping a beat.”
This week, Lock knows he’ll be playing against the Cardinals. The duration of his assignment remains to be seen.
The Seahawks will not have Sam Darnold back in the lineup for Week 2.
Head coach Mike Macdonald said at his Wednesday press conference that Darnold has been ruled out for this week’s game against the Cardinals. Drew Lock will start in Arizona on Sunday afternoon.
Darnold left last Wednesday’s game against the Patriots in the first half with what was called a hip injury at the time and was later updated to a glute tendon issue. There was word that Darnold could miss a month or more due to the injury, but Macdonald said that the Seahawks do not plan to place him on injured reserve.
Macdonald also said that the Seahawks do not anticipate adding another quarterback to go with Lock or Jalen Milroe while Darnold is out of action.
Wide receiver Simi Fehoko helped the Cardinals get their 2026 season off on the right foot.
Fehoko blocked a punt with the Cardinals up two points in the fourth quarter last Sunday and that play set up a touchdown that helped them on their way to a 26-14 win over the Chargers. The Chargers were the biggest favorites in the league heading into Week 1.
Fehoko also had a tackle while covering a kick earlier in the game. He was named the NFC special teams player of the week on Wednesday.
It’s Fehoko’s second season with the Cardinals. He had seven tackles while playing special teams last season.
