Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks have another injury issue at quarterback.

Head coach Mike Macdonald said at his press conference after Sunday’s 17-3 win over the Cardinals that Drew Lock has an oblique injury. Macdonald said that Lock’s status for Week 10’s game against the Raiders is “up in the air” as a result.

Lock was 19-of-28 for 175 yards and a touchdown in the win.

Lock started against Arizona because Sam Darnold was ruled out with a quad injury. His status for next Sunday is also uncertain.

2025 third-round pick Jalen Milroe is the next man up on the quarterback depth chart in Seattle. The Seahawks also added Adrian Martinez to the practice squad in the wake of Darnold’s injury.

Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock did today what he’s done three times this season: Played mistake-free football and led Seattle to a win.

Lock, playing once again for an injured Sam Darnold, was steady and efficient as the Seahawks controlled the game and beat the Cardinals 17-3.

Is Lock a better quarterback than Darnold? Probably not, but Lock might be better for what the Seahawks need right now, which is a quarterback who can play mistake-free football and let the defense win the game. Darnold has thrown nine interceptions this season, while Lock has thrown none.

Today Lock completed 19 of 28 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown. Not spectacular numbers, but the key numbers were zeroes: Zero interceptions, zero fumbles, zero sacks. Darnold has far more negative plays than Lock does this season, and that’s one of the reasons the Seahawks are 3-0 in the three games that have been primarily quarterbacked by Lock, and 2-4 in the six games that have primarily been quarterbacked by Darnold.

At 5-4, the Seahawks aren’t the team they hoped to be heading into this season, but they’re very much in contention. And they might just have a better chance of making the playoffs and getting an opportunity to defend their title if Lock keeps playing.

Seahawks tight end AJ Barner made the most of his opportunities in the first half today.

Barner only touched the ball four times in the first half, but two of them were touchdowns: He took the snap and ran up the middle for a touchdown on a tush push, and he also caught a seven-yard pass from Drew Lock for a receiving touchdown.

Those are the only two touchdowns in a game the Seahawks are leading 14-3 early in the third quarter.

At the end of the second quarter, Cardinals quarterback Gardner Minshew took a hard hit from Dante Fowler and appeared to injure his throwing arm, but he was back on the field for the start of the third quarter.

Cardinals rookie quarterback Carson Beck has been warming up, and it’s possible that he’ll see some action in the second half, but for now it’s Minshew’s job to dig the Cardinals out of their hole.

Maybe this year they’ll send Jaxon Smith-Njigba a trophy without a typo.

The Seahawks receiver, through eight games, remains on pace to become the first player to generate more than 2,000 receiving yards in a single season.

His 985 yards project to 2,093 yards for the full season.

The current record is held by Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, who gained 1,964 yards in 2012 with the Lions.

And for those who would argue that an asterisk should apply based on the extension of the season to 17 games, Smith-Njigba’s current production puts him on pace for 1,970 yards in 16 games.

There’s something more immediate that Smith-Njigba can achieve. With 115 receiving yards and a touchdown against the Cardinals on Sunday, Smith-Njigba will become only the fourth player in NFL history with 1,100 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns through the first nine games of a season.

The others were Hall of Famer Don Hutson in 1942, Hall of Famer Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch in 1951, and Hall of Famer Raymond Berry in 1960.

It’s amazing that it hasn’t happened in 66 years. With the rules that loosened the passing game in the 1970s, and given the many great receivers who have played over the past six decades (Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, just to name three), no one has done what Smith-Njigba could do today.

Quenton Nelson made his Seahawks debut in Week 8 and he’ll miss his first game as a Seahawk in Week 9.

Nelson has been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals due to a knee injury. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said that Nelson will have a minor procedure on his knee and will not go on injured reserve, but he will be considered week-to-week moving forward.

Grey Zabel will move back to left guard with Anthony Bradford returning to the right guard spot.

Macdonald also announced that defensive tackle Leonard Williams will miss the game with a stinger. Left tackle Charles Cross (ankle), linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (ankle), wide receiver Rashid Shaheed (knee), and defensive tackle Brandon Pili (back) were also ruled out on Friday.

Quarterback Sam Darnold (quad) was ruled out earlier in the week, so it will be an inactive list with a lot of significant names on it for the Seahawks this week.

Drew Lock has been dealing with an elbow injury, but he says it’s not impacting him as he readies to start against the Cardinals on Sunday.

While the Seahawks listed Lock as a limited participant on Wednesday’s injury report, he said his elbow is doing “a lot better.”

“It’s doing good, doing good,” Lock said in his Thursday press conference. “I’m excited to be back out there. It felt great to get under center and rip some balls yesterday. So, it feels good.”

Lock told reporters that he’s looking at his participation for the next few days “like a normal week.”

“If the training staff wants to pull it back a little bit, then let them make that decision,” Lock said. “But I’m expecting to go take every rep.”

Lock is set to start for Sam Darnold, who is week-to-week with a quad injury. Darnold also played through a cracked rib on Monday night. He has already been ruled out for this week and didn’t practice on Wednesday.

Lock had to fill in for an injured Darnold in Week 1, completing 16-of-22 passes in that game for 187 yards with a touchdown. He then beat the Cardinals in Week 2, completing 19-of-26 for 235 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in a 31-7 win.

Bill Belichick fell short of the necessary votes to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026, but he may have another chance in 2027.

The Hall of Fame announced the five coaches who have advanced to the next round of consideration in the current selection process. One of those coaches will be selected for consideration by the full selection committee ahead of the Super Bowl.

Belichick is joined by Tom Coughlin, Mike Holmgren, Dan Reeves, and Mike Shanahan. All five coaches also advanced to this point in the selection process last year. This is the fourth time that Holmgren has advanced to this point.

Don Coryell was the last coach selected for the Hall of Fame. He was part of the Class of 2023.

Seattle’s QB1 for Week 9 is in flux.

Quarterback Sam Darnold will not play in Sunday’s game against the Cardinals after suffering a quad injury late in Monday’s loss to the Bears, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald announced in his Wednesday press conference.

“It’ll be week-to-week for Sam,” Macdonald said. “He’s not going to go on IR.”

Macdonald noted the club intends to start Drew Lock on Sunday, but he’s also working through an injury.

“The plan is for Drew to start. Jalen [Milroe] will be ready to back up,” Macdonald said. “Drew’s still working back from his elbow, so we’ll work through that process this week. So we’ll be getting both guys ready to play. Have full confidence in those guys and we have a plan in place and we’ll go execute.”

Lock finished the Week 1 win over the Patriots and started Week 2 when the Seahawks beat the Cardinals in Arizona. He’s completed 35-of-48 passes this year for 422 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.

“He’s able to throw. How much, we’re working through that right now. That’s the best way to put it,” Macdonald said of Lock’s elbow injury. “He’s going to throw the ball throughout the week, but we’re just going to manage it. He’s not going to take 8,000 throws.”

Lock and Milroe are set to split reps at least early in the practice week.

“I think we just have to take it day-by-day at this point,” Macdonald said.

While Macdonald characterized Darnold as week-to-week with the quad injury, the quarterback is also dealing with another issue.

“In terms of Sam, this guy, he’s tough as nails,” Macdonald said. “I think the second play of the game, I just asked if I could share this, but he cracked his rib on the second play of the game. So, playing the whole game without even making a name of it, and playing his tail off, and competing, it’s worth noting how tough this guy is. He’ll be back sooner than later, I’m sure.”

Darnold has completed 60.2 percent of his passes this season for 1,478 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions so far this season.

Seattle’s first injury report of the week will be out later on Wednesday.

After Monday night’s loss to the Bears, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said that his team was beaten in all three phases of the game and he revisited that line of thinking on Tuesday.

During an appearance on Seattle Sports 710, Macdonald said that there’s an “itch to say” what needs to change about the team as they work to move forward from both the loss and the 4-4 start to their Super Bowl title defense. Macdonald then pivoted to suggesting “a deep breath” and a recentering of the things that propelled the Seahawks to success in the past rather than reaching for things to tweak across the board.

“If we’re going to go out, we want to go out in our way and our style, and that wasn’t us, or the best version of us at least,” Macdonald said, via the team’s website. “So that’s why I think it’s so tough. We have to focus on recapturing us and making sure that we’re us when we turn the tape on. There were too many times throughout that game where that wasn’t us in terms of just our style of ball. That’s where we need to get better.”

A home game against the Cardinals will be this week’s opportunity to double down on the kind of recentering that Macdonald is talking about and getting that in place in time for the Seahawks to finish strong appears to be the path Macdonald is charting in Seattle.

Let Russ coach.

Former NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, who’s in his first year as a member of The NFL Today on CBS, is exploring a possible Saturday gig.

Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, Wilson interviewed on Tuesday for the head-coaching vacancy at NC State.

Wilson spent four years at NC State, from 2007 through 2010, before transferring to Wisconsin after the Wolfpack opted to go with Mike Glennon for 2011.

The 10-time Pro Bowler has no coaching experience. The reported favorite for the job, former NFL and NC State quarterback Philip Rivers, has high-school coaching experience only.

If nothing else, the interview puts Wilson on the radar screen for other coaching jobs, at the college and pro level. His potential aspirations to coach were not, before now, widely known.